Words matter. These are the best Val McDermid Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’d like to be more spontaneous.
I am the despair of my accountant; I am the plastic bags of receipts.
The contemporary crime novel is, at its best, a novel of character. That’s where the suspense comes from.
I don’t think of myself as Scottish or lesbian when I sit down and write. I am glad I have broken out of that limited audience.
We weren’t dirt poor, but there was no spare money kicking around. While it was very much understood that the way to a better life was through education, books were a luxury we couldn’t afford. But when I was six, we actually moved opposite the central library, and that became my home from home.
The condition of rage is one in which I find myself starting my day – once I see the news headlines.
I said to Ruth Rendell, ‘When you’ve written as many books as you have, it’s easier.’ She said, ‘No dear, it gets harder’.
We all present versions of ourselves. The person you are at work is not the same person you are at home. The face we present in our most intimate relationships is not the face we present to the world.
Walking by water frees your creativity. I don’t know how it works – there’s something about it that’s liberating.
I’ve never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.
I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.
If you don’t make the best-seller list, if you don’t get shortlisted for any prizes, it’s goodbye.
I came from a working-class family, but I was supported by a grant system and had my fees paid, so I came out of Oxford with a debt of something like £200.
I don’t think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.
I think Jane Austen builds suspense well in a couple of places, but she squanders it, and she gets to the endgame too quickly. So I will be working on those things.
I was thinking things had changed: that the next generation of men weren’t as institutionally misogynist as the previous were. And then, suddenly, the Internet came along and gave them a platform to voice their feelings anonymously. And boy, did the bile come out.
I did want to be Joni Mitchell for quite a long time.
Why do the police need to know where I am? In the hands of a benevolent government, they could be looking after your interests, but what if the next government isn’t so benevolent?
Sometimes fear is used as a way to control.
