Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin
Ian James Rankin, OBE, DL, FRSEis a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 April 1960
competition stories radio
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.
scotland bores colleagues
[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.
ocean thinking one-day
You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.
stars rocks frustrated
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.
life real reading
His eyes beheld beauty not in reality but in the printed word. Standing in the waiting-room, he realized that in his life he had accepted secondary experience -- the experience of reading someone else's thoughts -- over real life.
writing fiction scottish
Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.
thinking ruth sparks
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.
book dark thinking
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.
growing-up kids thinking
I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.
book taken writing
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.
coffee wish breakfast
Rebus was eating breakfast in the canteen and wishing there was more caffeine in the coffee, or more coffee in the coffee come to that.
thinking ideas way
At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas.
character crime-novels trying
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.
match
The match hinged on the first try after the break,