Home / Authors / Ian Rankin Books

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin Books

Crime writer

Ian Rankin, born on April 28, 1960, is a renowned Scottish crime writer. His works, set in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, delve into themes of crime, social issues, and the darker aspects of human nature. Rankin's novels are highly appreciated by readers and have won numerous awards in the crime fiction genre.

Blood Hunt

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus N...

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

Set in Darkness

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

Strip Jack

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

The Beat Goes On

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

The Black Book

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

The flood

A source page for quotes linked to Ian Rankin.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“And little girls went to charm schools. Now you've all got degrees from the University of Sarcasm.”

Women Feminism University Sarcasm Girls Set In Darkness

Book:Set in Darkness

Source: Set in Darkness

“Hardship bred a bitter, quickfire humour and resilience to all but the most terminal of life's tragedies.”

Poverty Humour Scotland Scottish Austerity

Book:The Black Book

Source: The Black Book

“What happens to sanity when you chain it to a wall?”

Book:Strip Jack

Source: Strip Jack

“That was the problem with having money: you ended up with decisions to make. And if you bought anything, where would you put it? He'd need either ditch something, or to start on another carrier bag. That was the problem, being Frank.”

Money Decisions Problems

Book:The Beat Goes On

Source: The Beat Goes On

“John Rebus ~ he tried to walk through the isles (of the book shop) without focusing. If he focused he would become interested and if he became interested he would buy. He already had over fifty unread books at home, piled next to his bed”

Author:Ian Rankin

“Sometimes I think we're all gentlemen of the road. It's just that most of us haven't got the courage to take that first step.”

Crime Crime Fiction Gentlemen Tramp

Author:Ian Rankin

“The first piece of advice I would give any writer is to read a lot and to read widely. Firstly you start to realize what’s out there and what isn’t out there. Publishers are looking for stories that haven’t been told before. Reading other people can also improve your own writing. I love reading poetry even though I wouldn’t think of writing it. A great poet can say in two lines what it takes me a whole novel to express. If I’ve learned from any kind of writing, it’s poetry – and the lesson is concision. What can you leave out and the reader will still get the message?”

Writing Reading

Author:Ian Rankin

“At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas.”

Thinking Way Ideas Picks All Time New Ideas Twitching

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Hard Stories Use Opportunity Social Deals Technology Media Social Media Traditional Publishers New Technology Proactive

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Writing Book Self Adventure Reserved Many Friends Self Contained Misanthrope

Author:Ian Rankin

“I took the first James Kelman novel, 'The Bus Conductor Hines', home to my dad. I thought, 'My dad will like this; it's written in Scots.' But my dad said: 'I can't read that.' He was reading James Bond and John le Carre. That was part of what attracted me to crime - the idea of getting a wide audience.”

Firsts Said I Can Ideas Home Reading Novel Audience Written Crime Dad My Dad Wide Bus Conductor Scots

Author:Ian Rankin

“I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.”

Thinking Stills Kids Games Grows Growing Up Refuse Imaginary Imaginary Friend Just Kids

Author:Ian Rankin

“Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.”

Writing Wanted Fiction Scottish

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

People Thinking Needs Trying Book Black Dark Dangerous Crime Realised

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Stills Life Is Courses Stars Stuff Records Rocks Computer Shops Frustrated Rock Star Bad Life

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Thinking Particular Sparks Favourite Kate Ruth Welsh

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Thinking Writing Years Book Bigs Used Novel Taken Heard Serious Eating Nine Nine Years

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Firsts Stories Competition Radio Newspapers Prize Short Story

Author:Ian Rankin

“I'm interested in Scotland now and then, how it's changed. I want to get the reader to think about that by thinking about something from the past. How has society changed, how has policing changed, have we changed philosophically, psychologically, culturally, spiritually?”

Thinking Want Past Changed Reader Now And Then Scotland

Author:Ian Rankin

“I'm often asked how I write books, but I don't think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was 'I tend to make it up as I go along.' I'm not sure that's brilliant advice.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Book Class Creative Advice Approach Brilliant Not Sure Creative Writing Suitable

Author: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.”

Men Littles Stories Age Space Half Break Cutting Written Football Speech Paper Six Pages Sticks Seven Edges Eight Squares Bubbles Sheets Spy Folds

Author:Ian Rankin

“My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.”

Thinking Giving Firsts Book Enough Dream Half Novel Five Giving Up Six Dozen Publishers Turned Down

Author:Ian Rankin

“No matter how many awards you've won or how many sales you've got, come the next book it's still a blank sheet of paper and you're still panicking like hell that you've got nothing new to say.”

Stills Book Matter Next Hell Paper Awards Blank Sheets Nothing New

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Needs Trying Enough Character Difficult Novel Crime Elements Red Patterns Theme Multitudes Linked Strands Unruly Herring Crime Novels Red Herrings

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Ifs Needs Ideas Hard Hard Work Elements Deserve Luck Critical Great Idea

Author:Ian Rankin

“I love short stories - reading and writing them. The best short stories distill all the potency of a novel into a small but heady draught. They are perfect reading material for the bus or train or for a lunchtime break. Everything extraneous has been strained off by the author. The best short stories pack the heft of any novel, yet resonate like poetry.”

Writing Has Beens Stories Reading Perfect Break Novel Materials Train Bus Short Story Packs Reading And Writing Short Love Potency Draught Lunchtime Best Short

Author:Ian Rankin

“A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.”

Should Albums Holism

Author:Ian Rankin

“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.”

Life Real Reality Eye Reading Waiting Rooms Standing Accepted Real Life His Eyes Printed Waiting Rooms Printed Word

Author: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.”

Thinking Way Said Book Ends Lying Written Fingers Cells Inevitable Pushing Mattresses

Book:Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus Novel

Source: Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus Novel

“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.”

Wish Eating Coffee Breakfast Caffeine Eating Breakfast Canteen

Author:Ian Rankin

“It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing. Welcoming, but not very.”

Welcome Edinburgh

Author: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.”

Thinking One Day Ocean Air Pollution

Book:Blood Hunt

Source: Blood Hunt

“[About a tiresome colleague]: He could bore for Scotland.”

Bores Colleagues Scotland Tiresome

Author:Ian Rankin

“It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.”

Found Laughter Pockets

Book:Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus Novel

Source: Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus Novel

“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.”

People Men Way Life Mind Wish Mankind Son Skins Invention Cures One Way Witch Folklore Olden Days

Book:The flood

Source: The flood

“I started writing novels while an undergraduate student, in an attempt to make sense of the city of Edinburgh, using a detective as my protagonist. Each book hopefully adds another piece to the jigsaw that is modern Scotland, asking questions about the nation's politics, economy, psyche and history ... and perhaps pointing towards its possible future.”

Writing Book Nations Cities Novel Economy Pieces Modern Students Asking Add Hopefully Make Sense Scotland Pointing Detectives Asking Questions Protagonists Edinburgh Undergraduate Jigsaw

Author:Ian Rankin

“War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.”

War Allies Bizarre

Book:Blood Hunt

Source: Blood Hunt

“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.”

Children Seems Might Black Imagination Sleep Cities Streets Building Models Sticks Height Construction Balanced Orange Bricks Lamps Castles Plugs Lollipop Toffee

Book:Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel

Source: Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel

About the Author

Born: April 28, 1960
Known for: Crime writer
Quotes: 38

Related Topics

Thinking Book Writing Novel Crime Reading Scotland Stories Firsts Ideas

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Blood HuntRelated source material

Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus NovelRelated source material

Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus NovelRelated source material

Set in DarknessRelated source material

Strip JackRelated source material

The Beat Goes OnRelated source material

The Black BookRelated source material

The floodRelated source material

Similar Authors

Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Joyce Carol OatesBrowse related quotes
Maggie O'FarrellBrowse related quotes
Judy BlumeBrowse related quotes
Ashwin SanghiBrowse related quotes
Walter MosleyBrowse related quotes
Lynne TillmanBrowse related quotes
Eudora WeltyBrowse related quotes
John IrvingBrowse related quotes
Jeffery DeaverBrowse related quotes