Alexander McCall Smith Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It's the second biggest cause of death amongs the English in general. Sheer boredom...

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Boredom, People, Causes

  10 Copy quote

• I am often thanked by people for inventing the term traditionally built. The people who give me thanks for this are often traditionally built themselves.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  People, Giving, Thanks

  4 Copy quote

• As a writer, I have readers who will have a range of political views. I don't think they look to me for political guidance.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Thinking, Views, Political

  4 Copy quote

• To lose a child ... was something that could end one's world. One could never get back to how it was before. The stars went out. The moon disappeared. The birds became silent.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Inspirational, Stars, Children

  Alexander McCall Smith (1998). “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency”

  4 Copy quote

• That my philosophy of life is, as far as possible, one of enjoyment. I'm not nihilistic.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Philosophy, Life Is, Life Philosophy

  4 Copy quote

• Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Age, Faces, Bears

  4 Copy quote

• Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Self, Appreciate, Doe

  Alexander McCall Smith (2011). “Bertie Plays The Blues: 7”, p.9, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

• If you lose sight of the smaller accomplishments ,
  you end up with an imbalance in your life.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Sight, Accomplishment, Imbalance

  4 Copy quote

• As a writer I've learned certain lessons. One of them is to be careful about how you put a view, and to bear in mind how easily and readily you'll be misinterpreted.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Views, Mind, Lessons

  6 Copy quote

• I cannot see myself in a new car. I am a tiny white van person. That is what i want!

  Alexander McCall Smith

  White, Car, Want

  4 Copy quote

• There was a distinction between lying and telling half-truths, but it was a very narrow one.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Lying, Half, Distinction

  Alexander McCall Smith (2008). “The Sunday Philosophy Club”, p.121, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

• International business, once allowed to stalk uncontrolled, killed the local, the small, the quirky.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Quirky, Stalking, International Business

  Alexander McCall Smith (2007). “Love Over Scotland”, p.308, Anchor

  4 Copy quote

• It was easy to be moral when that was the way you felt anyway. The hard bit about morality was making yourself feel the opposite of what you really felt.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Opposites, Way, Morality

  Alexander McCall Smith (2006). “The Right Attitude to Rain”, p.29, Anchor

  4 Copy quote

• But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them?

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Love, Lying, People

  Alexander McCall Smith (2005). “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate”, p.200, Anchor

  4 Copy quote

• I am just a tiny person in Africa, but there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Earth, Tiny, Persons

  4 Copy quote

• Each of us is born into our own mysteries but the mystery of another might just take us in and embrace us. And then what a sense of homecoming, of belonging!

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Might, Mystery, Homecoming

  "Friends, Lovers, Chocolate". Book by Alexander McCall Smith, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Tea, Mind, Aspect

  4 Copy quote

• I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Book, Focus, Plot

  4 Copy quote

• Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Peaceful, Debt, Democratic

  4 Copy quote

• I am capable of being idle.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Idle, Capable

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• Reality television, which turned its eye on people who were doing nothing but being themselves, was the perfect expression of this trend [of narcissism]. Let's look at ourselves, it said. Aren't we fascinating?

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Eye, Reality, Expression

  Alexander McCall Smith (2007). “Espresso Tales”, p.10, Anchor

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

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