There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a London society, a highbrow literature celebrity society.
This might sound really foolish, but when I came to Edinburgh in 1988 I had spent nearly all my life living south of Bristol, and I was just amazed that a city like Edinburgh was actually in the British isles.
I used to say Edinburgh was a beautiful actress with no talent. I thought it was just like a shortbread tin. I think that's because I did six Festivals in a row there, and I never saw the real Edinburgh, just a lot of deeply annoying Cambridge Footli...
I do get recognized, but I must say Edinburgh is a fantastic city to live if you're well-known. There is an innate respect for privacy in Edinburgh people, and I also think they're used to seeing me walking around, so I don't think I'm a very big dea...
I liked Edinburgh as a university in a way that I'd never enjoyed King's College London. I realised after I came to Edinburgh that perhaps it was a mistake to have gone to a college which was bang in the centre of a vast city. It had a bad effect on ...
Edinburgh is alive with words.
Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist.
The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it d...
My first ever stage performance was in Edinburgh in 1960.
Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.
Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.
I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education.
Glasgow is less polite than Edinburgh but that's a good thing - they keep it very real.
When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous.
I love Scotland. Edinburgh is a beautiful city and has a wonderful tradition of supporting the arts.
I love coming back to Edinburgh. It's nice to spend real time here.
My accent is... sort of an Edinburgh sort of soft southwest Scottish accent. It could almost be English.
I'd done an Edinburgh show before, in 1981, called 'The Importance of Being Varnished' - I was in the pun trade at the time.
Living in Edinburgh, I consider myself particularly lucky - we have the biggest book festival in the world, a plethora of fascinating libraries and museums, and some of the greatest architecture in Europe.
If you're not keen on crowds, it might be best to give Edinburgh a miss during festival time when it can get extremely busy.
I have got the best of both worlds; growing up in Edinburgh and now living outside Glasgow.
