Latest Alexander McCall Smith Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think that we've made great moral progress in the second half of the 20th century in many respects, and particularly in relation to human rights but I think that we are losing sight of some of the values of concern for others, and self-respect and respect for others.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Thinking, Rights, Sight

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• This is another thing which I really like investigating in my novels: what is it that makes an intimate society, that makes a society in which moral concern for others will be possible? Part of that I think are manners and ritual. We tried to get rid of manners, we tried to abolish manners in the '60s. Manners were very, very old-fashioned and un-cool. And of course we didn't realise that manners are the building blocks of proper moral relationships between people.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Block, Thinking, Concern For Others

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• Ritual is a terribly important, binding cement in a society. If we abandon formality and rituals, we're actually weakening the relationships that exist between people that bind.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  People, Important, Abandon

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• We need to believe I think in justice. We need to run our lives as if justice existed... If we abandon a belief that justice will eventually be done, we make this world much more difficult for ourselves.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Running, Believe, Thinking

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• I enjoy women's conversation, and I think that helps me to describe them in fiction.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Thinking, Fiction, Helping

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• Some of my characters are a mixture of various aspects of people I have met. others are pure invention.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Character, People, Mixtures

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I see no point in being despondent. We might as well enjoy ourselves during our brief tenure of this life.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Might, This Life, Enjoy

  "National Book Festival: 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Novelist Alexander McCall Smith". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. September 19, 2008.

• If you want to write, do two things - read lots of books and also, in your own writing, practise. Just write and write and then write again. persist. And never be put off or discouraged. You can do it!

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Book, Writing, Two

  "National Book Festival: 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Novelist Alexander McCall Smith". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. September 19, 2008.

• I can read more languages than I speak! I speak French and Italian - not very well, alas, but I can get by. I read German and Spanish. I can read Latin (I did a lot of Latin at school.) I'm afraid I do not speak any African languages, although I can understand a little bit of the Zulu-related languages, but only a tiny bit.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Latin, School, Italian

  "National Book Festival: 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Novelist Alexander McCall Smith". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. September 19, 2008.

• Life consists of positive and negative features, and I think that it is permissible to write about both.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Writing, Thinking, Negative

  "National Book Festival: 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Novelist Alexander McCall Smith". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. September 19, 2008.

• I write four or five a books a year. That means that I usually have one on the go. I am fortunate in being able to write quickly - 1000 words an hour.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Book, Writing, Mean

  "National Book Festival: 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' Novelist Alexander McCall Smith". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. September 19, 2008.