Quotes by Val Mcdermid - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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I'd like to be more spontaneous.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Spontaneous
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When all else fails, go for the ego.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Ego
Failing
When All Else Fails
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No woman is a heroine to her dentist.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Dentist
Heroines
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A society gets the criminals it deserves.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Criminals
Deserve
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I did want to be Joni Mitchell for quite a long time.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Time Long Long Time
Joni Mitchell
Mitchell
Quite A Long Time
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Time for the likeliest story since Mary told Joseph it was God’s.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Mary
Stories
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It's not magic that takes us to another world - it's storytelling.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Magic
Storytelling
World
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I am the despair of my accountant; I am the plastic bags of receipts.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Bags
Despair
Plastic
Receipts
Accountant
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There is still a funny notion that women should not write violent fiction.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Notion
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He frowned as he struggled to remember. It was like watching an elephant crochet.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Elephants
Remember
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I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Formed
Fully
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Steve Mosby has become one of a handful of writers who make me excited about crime fiction.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Crime
Excited
Fiction
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If you don't make the best-seller list, if you don't get shortlisted for any prizes, it's goodbye.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Goodbye
Best-Seller
List
Prizes
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The condition of rage is one in which I find myself starting my day - once I see the news headlines.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Headlines
Rage
Condition
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The contemporary crime novel is, at its best, a novel of character. That's where the suspense comes from.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Contemporary
Suspense
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Walking by water frees your creativity. I don't know how it works - there's something about it that's liberating.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Liberating
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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'.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Dear
Ruth
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Broken
Glad
Scottish
Lesbian
Limited
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It was a bit unimaginable when I began that I'd ever get to 25 books. But it was also unimaginable how much crime-writing would have changed.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Unimaginable
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The thing is that quite a few of my books have ended up as they are because of conversations I've had over the years with forensic scientists.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Conversations
Ended
Forensic
Scientists
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On one hand, you've got 'decent' men, and on the other you've got neanderthal misogynist bawbags - and the middle ground is what's disappearing.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Decent
Middle Ground
Disappearing
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That was the trouble with moving houses; no matter how carefully you packed the books, they never ended up on the new shelves in quite the right place.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Book
House
Moving
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Debt
Fees
Oxford
Paid
Working Class
Grant
System
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Time Always Your
Demanded
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Austen
Endgame
Jane
Suspense
Builds
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Growing up in Fife, you were aware that there were these creatures called lesbians, but it was in the realms of complete freakishness. And I didn't feel like a freak.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Freak
Complete
Fife
Lesbians
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I won't be attempting to write Jane Austen-style prose - that would be suicidal. But I will attempt to bring the highest level of my own prose, and to make it sparkle.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Jane
Prose
Sparkle
Suicidal
Attempt
Highest Level
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A lot of reality TV is repellent, but that doesn't diminish the qualities of some of the people who take part. There are decent people in there who have no alternatives.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Alternatives
Decent
Diminish
Reality Tv
Decent People
Qualities
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I think that crime is a good vehicle for looking at society in general because the nature of the crime novel means that you draw on a wide group of social possibilities.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Vehicle
Wide
Possibilities
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Aspect
Ghetto
Just One
World Gay People
One Aspect
Reflects
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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?
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Benevolent
What If
Interests
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Intimate
Versions
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Not even a hand-stitched suit could hide a body gone ruinously to seed. I was tempted to offer some fashion advice, but I didn't think he'd welcome the news that this year, bellies are being worn inside the trousers.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Fashion
Hands
Thinking
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I have a vernacular house on the seaside in Northumberland and an Edwardian semi in south Manchester. They're both exactly as big as they need to be. I can't be doing with an ostentatious, big house - you can only be in one room at a time.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Manchester
Ostentatious
Vernacular
Time Doing Big
Big House
Edwardian
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Back in the day, when I started, you were still allowed to make mistakes. You got to make your mistakes in public, in a way. I think the world was a more forgiving place when I started my career, in the sense that we got time and space to develop as a writer.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Forgiving
Time And Space
Time Space World
Allowed
Mistakes
Develop
Space Time World
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Anonymously
Platform
Previous
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One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today - love, money, family. They haven't gone out of fashion, so it's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to rework her in a contemporary style.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Austen
Contemporary
Jane
Throwing
Love Family Money
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I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in the school holidays, and the only books in the house were a copy of the Bible and Agatha Christie's 'Murder at the Vicarage.' I developed a taste for murder mysteries and then later discovered libraries, second-hand bookshops, and jumble sales.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Bible
Second Hand
Taste
Copy
Developed
Discovered
Grandparents
Holidays
Jumble
Libraries
Mysteries
Sales
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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.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Better Life
Dirt
Luxury
Understood
Life Education Money
Opposite
Afford
Life Education Home
Central
Spare
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It seems to me that one of the things that happened with a lot of literary fiction in the 1980s and 1990s was that it became very concerned with the academy and less with how people live their lives. We got to a point where the crime novel stepped into the breach. It was also a time when the crime novel stopped being so metropolitan.
Val Mcdermid / Crime Writer
Academy
Breach
Metropolitan
Time Me People
Literary
Literary Fiction
Stepped
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