I wanted to be able to support myself without begging for handouts from the state. All of the writers I knew when I was a student were all getting grants from the Scottish Arts Council. Ian Rankin More Quotes by Ian Rankin More Quotes From Ian Rankin I've always written. At the age of six or seven, I would get sheets of A4 paper and fold them in half, cut the edges to make a little eight-page booklet, break it up into squares and put in little stick men with little speech bubbles, and I'd have a spy story, a space story and a football story. Ian Rankin cutting football men War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive. Ian Rankin allies bizarre war I think writers have to be proactive: they've got to use new technology and social media. Yes, it's hard to get noticed by traditional publishers, but there's a great deal of opportunity out there if you've got the right story. Ian Rankin technology opportunity thinking 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. Ian Rankin competition radio firsts I don't have many friends. It's not because I'm a misanthrope. It's because I'm reserved. I'm self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I'm writing my books. Ian Rankin writing adventure book 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. Ian Rankin ruth sparks thinking 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. Ian Rankin frustrated rocks stars Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction. Ian Rankin scottish writing fiction A good album should be more than the sum of its parts. Ian Rankin holism albums should You need a great idea, but then you've got to carry it through. If you get it right, you're going to be a critical success. But not everyone who works hard gets it right, or has the success they deserve: there's an element of luck. Ian Rankin hard-work luck ideas It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing. Welcoming, but not very. Ian Rankin edinburgh welcome I'm not qualified for anything. I've had lots of little jobs, like picking grapes and being a tax man. I can't imagine not writing, because I've done it since I was five or six. Maybe I'd work in academia. That's always what the plan was. Ian Rankin man done work writing I dunno whether it was to do with my parents - we were working-class - but it was important to me to be self-sufficient. Ian Rankin working-class parents me important I don't want the books to become PR exercises for the police; I want to have the freedom to write about cops who cross the line: bad cops. Ian Rankin bad police freedom want I don't hang out with cops. Ian Rankin cops hang out I grew up in a family that was working-class, which taught me to be careful with money. Ian Rankin me be-careful family money My mother worked in a school canteen - then worked in the canteen of a chicken factory. Every Friday, the pay packet money would be allocated to cover bills. Ian Rankin chicken money mother school My father worked in a grocery store. When the grocery chain went into administration, he eventually got a job in the naval dockyard in an office preparing the charts for the boats and the submarines before they headed out. Ian Rankin out job office father
