R. B. Sheridan Quotes

I didn't expect to love being online as much as I do. I've met some wonderful people and discovered that however arcane some of my interests that there are people out there who are interested too.

For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they're best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish - we're famous for travelling in search of adventure.

I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.

An aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side.

Everyone assumes writers spend their time lounging around, writing and occasionally striking a pose whilst having a think.

The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events and online. Down with the isolation of writers I say! And long live Twitter.

Writers need each other.

Scotland consistently produces world-class writers.

Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.

I had never really understood what an adventure life could be, if you followed your heart and did what you really wanted to do, which is what we must all do in the end.

I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.

But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together.

Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have.

It is one of the benchmarks of a culture I always think – the page at which it operates. A good way to measure it is to order a taxi and see how irate local people get if it is late.

It may take a village to raise a baby, but hell! it takes an army to produce a book.

Remember, a book is always a gift.

History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not.

I've always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.

Writing about the 1950s has given me tremendous respect for my mother's generation.

I've found myself moved by letters and diaries in archives as well as trashy, summer blockbusters. It's possible to make a connection with any kind of writing - as long as the writing is good.

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.

At the end of the day, that's what a family is - a group of different people who accept each other.

Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.

Sometimes I create a character from a scrap - a mere mention that has been left behind.

You still need to understand what your fundamental and primary jobs are you have to make sure that you execute those before you can really dabble into something else.

But I think you could say my parts in Appointment In London and Gilbert and Sullivan were particularly interesting.

After all, a job isn't worth doing unless you enjoy it.

Find earth where grows no weed, and you may find a heart wherein no error grows.

I don't have time to worry about them when they are not.

But what I did know was that I loved a girl. And I knew I loved her in a way I'd never, ever recover from. I knew I loved her to the very core of myself. And I knew she loved me back.

Maybe I'm an open book, or maybe love is like a magnifying glass straight into the souls of those who own your heart.

I'm actually more comfortable playing the stroke victim or the girl with no makeup on, looking scruffy and it's all about what's going on inside rather than on the outside.

I think I've always been a fighter in a healthy way.

Self confidence is the ground stone of success

Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line, - by deeds, not years.

Ageing is a process of exchanging hope for insight

A practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.

There is no trusting appearances.

The law don't like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.

Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.

Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.

History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.

People make interesting assumptions about the profession. The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two.

I don't choose between my house phone and my mobile. I don't choose between my laptop and my notebook. And I don't intend to choose between my e-reader and my bookshelf.

To me, reading through old letters and journals is like treasure hunting. Somewhere in those faded, handwritten lines there is a story that has been packed away in a dusty old box for years.

There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art - be that in a film, or a photograph or painting.

As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective.

A book is a story, even if it's non-fiction, and once I've read it, I have the story with me inside my head always.

I drink to not giving a damn . . .

The books housed in one's first adult bookshelf are the geological bed of who we wish to become