Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith
R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a British writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth24 August 1948
mind tea aspect
I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.
book focus plot
I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.
cities edinburgh used
Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.
peaceful debt democratic
Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds.
fall thinking way
If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.
character people want
As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.
paint painter expected
Painters aren't expected to paint bleak pictures, are they?
character needs fiction
Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.
views mind lessons
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.
quirky stalking international-business
International business, once allowed to stalk uncontrolled, killed the local, the small, the quirky.
desire complaining culture
The Culture of Complaint... We live in a culture of complaint because everyone is always looking for things to complain about. It's all tied in with the desire to blame others for misfortunes and to get some form of compensation into the bargain.
work-out people world
It is not enough just to identify a problem; there are plenty of people who were very skilled at pointing out what was wrong with the world, but they were not always so adept at working out how these things could be righted.
believe miracle may
The previously unloved may find it hard to believe that they are now loved; that is such a miracle, they feel; such a miracle.
plenty
There is plenty of work for love to do.