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" My mother worked in a school canteen - then worked in the canteen of a chicken factory. Every Friday, the pay packet money would be allocated to cover bills. "
Ian Rankin
Chicken
Money
School
Related Quotes:
" I don't hang out with cops. "
Ian Rankin
Hang
Out
Cops
" I dunno whether it was to do with my parents - we were working-class - but it was important to me to be self-sufficient. "
Ian Rankin
Me
Self-Sufficient
Parents
" In 1991, I won the Chandler Fulbright Prize, which came with $20,000 and the stipulation of spending six months in the U.S. "
Ian Rankin
Spending
Which
Won
" I'm interested in Scotland now and then, how it's changed. I want to get the reader to think about that by thinking about something from the past. How has society changed, how has policing changed, have we changed philosophically, psychologically, culturally, spiritually? "
Ian Rankin
Want
Past
Society
" Punk gave you a kind of chutzpah, so even trying to be a writer, I just thought, 'Well, I'm going to send poems to 'Radio Times,' short stories to the 'Observer,' just have a go. "
Ian Rankin
Short
Radio
You
" The great thing about America is I always come back with more books and more tip-offs of who to read. It's a country in love with crime fiction. "
Ian Rankin
Love
Great
Country
" 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. "
Ian Rankin
Story
Competition
Newspaper
" I grew up in a family that was working-class, which taught me to be careful with money. "
Ian Rankin
Which
Be Careful
Family
" I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this; it's written in Scots.' But my dad said: 'I can't read that.' He was reading James Bond and John le Carre. That was part of what attracted me to crime - the idea of getting a wide audience. "
Ian Rankin
Bond
Crime
Reading
" 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. "
Ian Rankin
Head
Books
Because
" I wrote 'Knots and Crosses,' the first of the Rebus books, not even realising that I was writing crime fiction. "
Ian Rankin
First
Writing
Knots
" A lot of writers, especially crime writers, have an image that we think we're trying to keep up with. You've got to be seen as dark and slightly dangerous. But I'm not like that and I've realised that I don't need to put that on. People will buy the books whether they see a photo of you dressed in black or not. "
Ian Rankin
People
You
Trying
" I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends. "
Ian Rankin
Games
Up
Think
" I think writers have to be proactive: they've got to use new technology and social media. Yes, it's hard to get noticed by traditional publishers, but there's a great deal of opportunity out there if you've got the right story. "
Ian Rankin
Technology
Opportunity
Social Media
" At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas. "
Ian Rankin
New
Ideas
Way
" My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer. "
Ian Rankin
Think
Money
Live
" I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I'd think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, 'No - it took you one year to write, and nine years to sit around eating Kit Kats.' "
Ian Rankin
Eating
Think
Serious
" I don't want the books to become PR exercises for the police; I want to have the freedom to write about cops who cross the line: bad cops. "
Ian Rankin
Become
Want
Police
" Writers always think their greatest work is just ahead of them. "
Ian Rankin
Greatest
Think
Ahead
" In real life, writers tend to be quite boring, but in our books, we're having exciting adventures all the time. "
Ian Rankin
Life
Our
Boring
" 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. "
Ian Rankin
I Am
Bad
Life
" Why does any novelist keep writing long after they've made money? Because they've failed to write the perfect novel. "
Ian Rankin
Perfect
Keep
Long
" I go to Canada at least every two years. "
Ian Rankin
Every
Years
Two
" People aren't coming to me looking for political essays or polemic - they're looking for a rattling good story. "
Ian Rankin
Good
Political
Story
" The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you're dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings - and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern. "
Ian Rankin
Need
Control
Crime
" I'm often asked how I write books, but I don't think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was 'I tend to make it up as I go along.' I'm not sure that's brilliant advice. "
Ian Rankin
Advice
Writing
Creative
" I'm not qualified for anything. I've had lots of little jobs, like picking grapes and being a tax man. I can't imagine not writing, because I've done it since I was five or six. Maybe I'd work in academia. That's always what the plan was. "
Ian Rankin
Plan
Writing
Done
" I don't think I have one particular favourite writer. I have many whose works I will always buy or reread - Muriel Spark, Anthony Powell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ruth Rendell, James Ellroy, William McIlvanney, Kate Atkinson, John Burnside, Louise Welsh, Iain Banks. "
Ian Rankin
Think
Writer
Will
" Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction. "
Ian Rankin
Knew
Beginning
Scottish
" You need a great idea, but then you've got to carry it through. If you get it right, you're going to be a critical success. But not everyone who works hard gets it right, or has the success they deserve: there's an element of luck. "
Ian Rankin
Deserve
You
Success