Ian Rankin Quotes

8 Sourced Quotes

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.

Ian Rankin
From this height the sleeping city seems like a child's construction, a model which has refused to be constrained by imagination. The volcanic plug might be black Plasticine, the castle balanced solidly atop it a skewed rendition of crenellated building bricks. The orange street lamps are crumpled toffee-wrappers glued to lollipop sticks.

Ian Rankin
It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.

Ian Rankin
Witches never existed, except in people's minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We're all witches in one way or another. Witches was the invention of mankind, son. We're all witches beneath the skin.

Ian Rankin
Was it all inevitable, John?" Reeve was pushing his fingers across the floor of the cell, seated on his haunches. I was lying on the mattress. Yes," I said. "I think it was. Certainly, it's written that way. The end of the book is there before the beginning's hardly started.

Ian Rankin
It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing. Welcoming, but not very.

Ian Rankin
War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.

Ian Rankin
You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.

Ian Rankin