Rankin Quotes

As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.

It is unconscionable that 10,000 boys have died in Vietnam. If 10,000 American women had mind enough they could end the war, if they were committed to the task, even if it meant going to jail.

War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.

I don't have many friends. It's not because I'm a misanthrope. It's because I'm reserved. I'm self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I'm writing my books.

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star - I'd much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it's not a bad life, is it? You just sit at a computer and make stuff up.

I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize. The first story was published in a newspaper. The second went out on radio.

Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.

It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing. Welcoming, but not very.

I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.

There's a layer of satisfaction that I get from cooking that is more than the work itself. I think when you're too competitive sometimes you can lose the joy of what you do.

We [chefs] are competitive, although I think you need to be careful with competitiveness as it can become quite negative.

Being a sport star and a chef both require passion, commitment, work and natural ability.

Sometimes I think you can lose the joy in what you do. It becomes a sense of 'I've got to beat him, I've got to beat him,' and you lose your own sense of joy.

Chef means boss and in France you get an office chef and you get a chef on a building site, etc. So I'm a chef de cuisine, chef of the kitchen, and that means that I'm in charge of a team.

The work element comes into it as well - how much you train and how much work you put into your craft, in the same way a carpenter would perhaps work under a great teacher, etc.

I think the relationship between print and film is symbiotic, it's more about evolving and complimenting your existing content. The two are very much interconnected.

Have you ever head this theory about drinking yourself sober?' Eddie asked. 'It's a very popular theory. Amongst drunks, anyway.

Oh dear,' said Eddie. 'We'd better hurry. Tinto, call me a cab.' All right,' said Tinto. 'You're a cab.

Jack, get a grip of yourself.' I have a grip of myself.' Jack took a grip of himself. It was a most intimate grip; not the kind of grip that you usually take of yourself in public.

I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war

Need to get to Ruislip by sparrow-fart though', said the squadron leader. 'Think you can do that? Can I come along for the ride?

I hope you grow up to be as good a mother as your father

Hardship bred a bitter, quickfire humour and resilience to all but the most terminal of life's tragedies.

I was unrecognizable even to family. When Kim saw me she yelled, " That's not Amy!" Just before she passed out.

And little girls went to charm schools. Now you've all got degrees from the University of Sarcasm.

...trapped in limbo, believing in a lack of belief, but not necessarily lacking the belief to believe.

I practice neither black nor white magic.What I do is a technology that I use for my own individual purposes. I don’t strive to be a member of a club.

If it was that easy, the American military would have figured it out years ago.

On Tuesday, December 7th, a lot of good things happened: they took the trach out, took the cast off my leg and my PT, Maria, had me standing.

On the fifth day, they told my parents I was on the bottom of the chart, and there was nothing else they could do.

Some of the things that contributed to my positive attitude were rejoicing, smiling and acknowledging every small step I had made.

We'd be the safest country in the world if the world knew we didn't have a gun. Men are not killed because they get mad at each other. They're killed because one has a gun.

She continues to do her best to inspire and make others smile with her attitude of "it can always get better.

I never thought I'd be a teacher, but when I started doing it, I fell in love with it.

My father was a slave to capitalist ideology. He didn't know what he was doing.""You mean you went to an expensive school?

With nature on your side, you don’t need numbers, you don’t need financing and you certainly don’t need to make friends with people you should be fightingagainst.

On Tuesday December seventh a lot of good things happened: they took the trach out, took the cast off my leg, and my PT, Maria, had me standing.

The man nodded and brought a bottle from the glass-fronted fridge,

The first time he saw me, comatose with a head the size of 3 basketballs, he didn't even think it was me.

This man had something to hide, some shame in his past, and those with a past can always be bought.

After the brain surgery, I started the hard process of recovery.

The first time I was told that I had a brain injury, I immediately thought to myself, "I'm not crazy.

My parents also had a tough time recognizing me at first. because my eyes were black and swollen shut and I had two tubes coming out of my head.

What happens to sanity when you chain it to a wall?

You take people as far as they will go not as far as you would like them to go.

The government is concerned about the population explosion and the population is concerned about the government explosion.

We're half the people we should be half the Congress.

What one decides to do in crisis depends on one's philosophy of life and that philosophy cannot be changed by an incident. If one hasn't any philosophy in crises others make the decision.

Instead of thinking about where you are think about where you want to be. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success.

The most important accomplishment, I believe, was my voting against the First World War.