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

A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.

Rebus was eating breakfast in the canteen and wishing there was more caffeine in the coffee, or more coffee in the coffee come to that.

You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.

At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas.

I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.

No matter how many awards you've won or how many sales you've got, come the next book it's still a blank sheet of paper and you're still panicking like hell that you've got nothing new to say.

It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.

[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.

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.

keep love in your heart. A life without is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead ...

In truth, there are no good people. There are only the decisions we make and the circumstances we live in.

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

Folks build a reputation by attacking you while you’re alive - or praising you after you ain’t.

I don't really know what I want, other than good sequences, whatever that means. What I find is always a matter of chance, judgment, and luck.

The Creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite, and at the same time, the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells of God.

I think it's sort of a rite of passage for a British actor to try and get the American accent and have a good crack at doing that.

New York feels vibrant It feels electric to walk the streets at night.

When in the Land of Property think like a propertarian. Dress like one, eat like one, act like one, be one.

The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge