Quotes by Adrian Mckinty - Page 1 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

I was knocked down and dragged by a police Land Rover in a hit-and-run.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Dragged
Rover
Copy Quote
The winters in Denver are brutal; it snows from the end of October to April.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
April
Brutal
Denver
October
Winters
Copy Quote
'The Man in the High Castle' is still the best what-if-the-Axis-had-won novel.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Castle
Copy Quote
Crime fiction, especially noir and hardboiled, is the literature of the proletariat.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Crime Fiction
Noir
Proletariat
Copy Quote
Drawing Dead is a brilliant noir from one of Australia's most exciting new novelists.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Australia
Drawing
Novelists
Copy Quote
I used to get a lift to school every day with a man who was a major in the British Army.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Army
Man Day Every Day
Lift
Copy Quote
The minutes ticked past. This is why peelers need a book. A wee paperback to stick in your pocket.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Book
Past
Pockets
Copy Quote
People in the North are really taciturn and reticent, and they don't really like to talk about the past.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Taciturn
Copy Quote
After secondary school, the big thing to do was apply for uni in England or Scotland and then just stay there.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Scotland
Secondary School
Apply
Big Thing
Secondary
Copy Quote
When a locked-room mystery doesn't work, the solution makes you groan, and the book gets hurled across the room.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Solution
Copy Quote
I had a few stories and longer pieces published, but my first proper novel came in 2003, called 'Dead I Well May Be.'
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Dead
Longer
Proper
Published
Copy Quote
If you haven't read 'In The Morning I'll Be Gone', I reckon it's a pretty good place to start if you're new to me and my books.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Good Place
Morning Good Me
Pretty Good
Reckon
Copy Quote
I studied law at Warwick University, then philosophy at Oxford. I met my wife Leah there. She is American, so I followed her to New York.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Oxford
Followed
Copy Quote
I don't know if that's a year's bad luck, or if that's how it works. But stealing a Christmas tree - that can't be a good thing, karma-wise.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Christmas
Bad Luck
Christmas Tree
Luck
Stealing
Tree
Good Thing
Copy Quote
I've never been a believer in the word-count thing. I write slowly and tinker with the words and the word order, and I throw a lot of stuff out.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Believer
Slowly
Tinker
Copy Quote
I think if you grow up in a culture where the army is out on the street sighting you with rifles, it has to have some kind of psychological impact.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Army
Psychological
Rifles
Copy Quote
We were living in Denver, Colorado, and I was teaching high school. I asked the kids to write a short story, so I thought I should write some myself.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Colorado
Denver
Short Story
Copy Quote
I did a law degree but was miserable the whole time. I was supposed to join a law firm in London but instead went to Oxford to do a master's in philosophy.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Firm
Miserable
Oxford
Master
Join
Law Firm
Copy Quote
The Ned Kelly is definitely the coolest of all the crime fiction awards, and if you think about it, it's the only one that's given for an entire continent.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Awards
Crime
Crime Fiction
Continent
Coolest
Entire
Copy Quote
I did the same thing as every Irish person who comes to New York. I arrived on a Wednesday, and by Saturday night, I was pulling pints at a pub in the Bronx.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
New York
Bronx
Pints
Saturday
Saturday Night
Wednesday
Pub
Same Thing
York
Copy Quote
Building on the work of George Macdonald, William Morris and Edward Plunkett, what became known as high fantasy was more or less invented by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Fantasy
Morris
Edward
George
William
Macdonald
More Or Less
Tolkien
Copy Quote
A specific editor in a specific place likes the book, and you're in. A different editor on a different day goes, 'Oh, this isn't for me', or doesn't even look at it, and that's it.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Likes
Me Look Day
Editor
Look Me Day
Copy Quote
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals. It's part of our DNA. That's why conspiracy theories and gods are so popular: we always look for the wider, bigger explanations for things.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Animal
Dna
Patterns
Copy Quote
'The Man in the High Castle' was not the first alternative history novel, nor even the first Nazis-win-the-war novel, but it is still probably the most influential book in the genre.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Genre
Influential
Alternative
Castle
Copy Quote
Sometimes the fantasy writers set their novels in an ancient Earth, sometimes a parallel Earth, or, quite often, they offered no explanation at all as to the temporal and geographic location.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Ancient
Explanation
Fantasy
Location
Geographic
Offered
Parallel
Temporal
Copy Quote
I've always been a secret locked-room fanatic. I read my first one when I was about ten or 11, Agatha Christie's 'Murder on the Orient Express,' with David Niven and Peter Ustinov on the cover.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Peter
David
Cover
Fanatic
First One
Orient
Copy Quote
On my Wikipedia page, it used to say I was born in Belfast, Ireland, then it said Belfast, Northern Ireland, and then it said Belfast, U.K. So there was a little war going on about where Belfast is located.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Belfast
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Wikipedia
Located
Northern
Page
Copy Quote
I was born the year the Troubles began, in 1968. That world of violence was all I knew - people murdered, maimed, kneecapped, bombed. I don't remember a time without a major atrocity of some kind every week.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Time World Remember
Atrocity
Began
Bombed
Major
Maimed
Troubles
Copy Quote
I speak with a Northern Irish accent with a tinge of New York. My wife has a bit of a Boston accent; my oldest daughter talks with a Denver accent, and my youngest has a true blue Aussie accent. It's complicated.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Daughter
New York
Blue
Boston
Complicated
Denver
Accent
Aussie
Northern
Oldest
Talks
York
Copy Quote
In the crime fiction section, you may just find a novel that talks about the place where you're from and speaks to you about your life - or the life yours could have become if a little misfortune had come your way.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Crime Fiction
Life May Your
Misfortune
Section
Speaks
Talks
Yours
Copy Quote
I met my wife in Oxford, fell in love with her, and followed her to New York. I was an illegal there for the first few years, until we got married, so I ended up doing lots of interesting jobs, some for a few days, some for a few months.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Jobs
New York
Illegal
Interesting
Married
Months
Oxford
Lots
Ended
Followed
Met
York
Copy Quote
I had gone to New York with no plan at all. I did a lot of jobs - barman, teacher, security guard, postman and construction worker - and I was meeting many eccentric characters, and they were saying funny things, which I always wrote down.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Construction
Eccentric
Funny Things
Postman
Worker
Guard
Meeting
Copy Quote
Irish fathers still have certain responsibilities, and by the time my two daughters turned seven, they could swim, ride a bike, sing at least one part of a Woody Guthrie song, and recite all of W. B. Yeats's 'The Song of Wandering Aengus.'
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Bike
Certain
Seven
Song
Swim
Woody
Yeats
Daughters
At Least One
By The Time
Fathers
Guthrie
Wandering
Least
Recite
Responsibilities
Ride
Sing
Copy Quote
Our daughter's name Arwynn comes from Arwen in 'Lord of the Rings' because my wife and I met for the first time in the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis used to go to read out their stories to one another.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Daughter
First Time
Lord
Oxford
Rings
Stories
Eagle
Lewis
Lord Of The Rings
Met
Pub
Tolkien
Copy Quote
With a few notable exceptions, literary fiction in the U.K. is dominated by an upper and upper middle-class clique who usually have a tin ear for the demotic and who portray working-class characters with, at best, a benevolent condescension.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Benevolent
Clique
Notable
Tin
Working Class
Dominated
Ear
Exceptions
Literary
Literary Fiction
Portray
Upper
Copy Quote
A locked-room problem lies at the heart of my new novel, 'In The Morning I'll Be Gone,' in which an RUC detective has to find out whether a publican's daughter who fell off a table in a bar that was locked from the inside was in fact murdered.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Locked
Bar
Detective
Copy Quote
I find it easier to write in the winter in Melbourne. When the weather is good you want to go out for a walk, ride a bike, go to a cafe or something. When it's raining, when it's a miserable day, I just sit down at my desk and get some work done.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Bike
Melbourne
Miserable
Weather
Winter
Cafe
Work Good Walk
Desk
Raining
Ride
Copy Quote
The first proper mystery novel that I read was 'Murder On the Orient Express' with a gaunt David Niven and a cherubic Peter Ustinov on the cover. 'Orient Express,' you'll recall, is the one where everyone did it, which delighted me no end, and I was immediately hooked.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Delighted
Hooked
Novel
Peter
David
Cover
Read
Express
Immediately
Orient
Proper
Recall
Copy Quote
I love the trilogy form. I like the idea that you can establish a character in book one. And then in the second part, you can take the characters down to their darkest point. And then in the third part, you have total freedom either to give them redemption - or just to kill them.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Redemption
Darkest
Establish
Total Freedom
Trilogy
Copy Quote
Because of England's lack of social mobility, unless they make truly heroic efforts, writers who are privately educated and then go on to Oxbridge or an institution like the BBC will generally embarrass themselves when they attempt to have a go at working- or lower middle-class characters.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Heroic
Mobility
Attempt
Bbc
Embarrass
Efforts
Institution
Privately
Copy Quote
Every publisher or agent I've ever met told me the same thing - that Irish readers don't want to read about the bad old days of the Troubles; neither do the English and Americans - they only want to read about the Ireland of The Quiet Man, when red-haired widows are riding bicycles and everyone else is on a horse.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Horse
Ireland
Old Days
Quiet
Riding
Widows
Agent
Everyone Else
Met
Neither
Publisher
Readers
Same Thing
Troubles
Copy Quote
I think the poetry that came out of Belfast, and especially the Queen's University set, in the 1970s and '80s - you know, Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Ciaran Carson - that was probably the finest body of work since the Gaelic renaissance, up there with the work of Yeats and Synge and Lady Gregory.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Belfast
Body
Finest
Gaelic
Renaissance
University
Yeats
Since
Came
Set
Queen
Lady
Paul
Copy Quote
With gas cookers and chip pans in every kitchen, the chip-pan fire was by far the most popular method these Proddies had for burning their houses down. The second technique was the ever popular chimney fire and number three had to be the drunken cigarette drop on the carpet. Mind you, why they'd be cooking chips at this hour was anyone's guess.
Adrian Mckinty / Novelist
Fire
House
Numbers
Copy Quote

Related Novelist Authors

Zoran Drvenkar
Novelist
Wednesday, Jul 19, 1967
Zia Haider Rahman
Novelist
Zelda Fitzgerald
Novelist
Tuesday, Jul 24, 1900
Wednesday, Mar 10, 1948
Zakes Mda
Novelist
Zadie Smith
Novelist
Saturday, Oct 25, 1975
Zachary Lazar
Novelist
Yxta Maya Murray
Novelist
Yury Olesha
Novelist
Friday, Mar 03, 1899
Tuesday, May 10, 1960
Yasutaka Tsutsui
Novelist
Monday, Sep 24, 1934
Yasmine Galenorn
Novelist
Xiaolu Guo
Novelist
Wu Cheng'en
Novelist
Wright Morris
Novelist
Thursday, Jan 06, 1910
Saturday, Apr 25, 1998
Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
Novelist
Tuesday, May 07, 1867
Saturday, Dec 05, 1925
Witold Gombrowicz
Novelist
Thursday, Aug 04, 1904
Thursday, Jul 24, 1969

View All Novelist Quotes

Top Authors

Kobe Bryant
Basketball Player
Wednesday, Aug 23, 1978
Sun Tzu
Strategist
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
George Carlin
Comedian
Wednesday, May 12, 1937
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
Khalil Gibran
Poet
Saturday, Jan 06, 1883
Friday, Apr 10, 1931
Lucy Larcom
Poet
Friday, Mar 05, 1824
Monday, Apr 17, 1893
Napoleon Hill
Author
Friday, Oct 26, 1883
Sunday, Nov 08, 1970
Dr. Seuss
Writer
Wednesday, Mar 02, 1904
Tuesday, Sep 24, 1991
Oprah Winfrey
Media Proprietor
Friday, Jan 29, 1954
Abraham Lincoln
16Th U.S. President
Sunday, Feb 12, 1809
Saturday, Apr 15, 1865
Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher
Wednesday, May 05, 1813
Sunday, Nov 11, 1855
Aristotle
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
John Muir
Author
Saturday, Apr 21, 1838
Thursday, Dec 24, 1914
Niccolo Machiavelli
Historian
Monday, May 03, 1469
Tuesday, Jun 21, 1527
Heraclitus
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thomas Jefferson
3Rd US President
Saturday, Apr 13, 1743
Tuesday, Jul 04, 1826

View All Authors

Share This Page