Philip Kerr Quotes

When I feel I’m repeating myself, I’ll probably pack it in. What will undoubtedly happen is I’ll write one too many. The important thing is to recognize when you’ve written too many and stop there.

I think the context of an hour-long drama gives breathing space that you don’t get in a film.

There’s something weird about the Scots. We are a troubled, slightly tortured race – the sense of the respectable outward character and, inside, the turmoil of something darker.

I don’t really like heroes who always behave heroically. That’s not interesting to me.

All nationalism is based on racism and hate. I’m Scottish; I was born in Scotland, as my parents, as my grandparents.

As a writer, you rely on whatever makes you up as a person, whether those things are twisted and nasty or otherwise.

Being British, we tend to think of ourselves as America’s best friend. And as your best friend, that gives us a little bit of license to point out things that could have been handled better.

The hardest thing is to write about people. First and foremost, you have to encounter their humanity. That is the only way you can make them live as characters on the page.

I always try to find a story in the margins of history, but I don’t like to do too much that’s improbable.

I don’t think any of us know how we would react until we were put in a situation where we have to do something bad or do something good. I think I’d like to believe I’d act like a decent human being, but I’m realistic to know I don’t know.

James Bond was an early favourite, although I didn’t understand much of it. I read the Bible a lot, too. You might say that this was my favourite, since I seemed to read it so often.

My parents had never been to Germany. But I knew what I didn’t want to write about, and I didn’t want to write about Edinburgh. A lot of writers find Edinburgh fascinating, but I never did. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t wait to get away from it.

It’s not easy being the world’s policeman. No one thanks you for it.

Religion was quite a thing in our house – we were Baptists. Some Sundays I went to church three times. If there was a talk on missionary work in the afternoon, I could be there all bloody day. But religion took its first big knock after Dad died.

If I weren’t a writer, I think I might have thrown myself more enthusiastically into advertising. But, it’s difficult to imagine being a diligent copywriter. It would be quite exasperating for me.

When I feel I’m repeating myself, I’ll probably pack it in.

I prefer to write books for children instead of reading them. But I do strongly believe in childhood and in respecting childhood innocence. I don’t like books for children that deal with adult themes.

Sport seems to be much more important to people than politics.

I will say that anyone who supports Scottish independence should go to Athens. Because nothing works. It is a disaster. It is a ruined, dirty place where people do not have money or future prospects. The day one after independence, Scotland would be worse.

Publishers just want you to write the same book over and over again. But why would I want to do that? It would be like putting on a threadbare dressing-gown day after day.

Scotland is the only case in the world where the poor part of a territory wants to separate from the rich part. If independence came, one option is to keep the pound as its currency, so that all economic decisions will continue to be taken by the Bank of England.

I really wanted to write the way Kubrick makes films – ‘Strangelove,’ ‘2001’, ‘Clockwork Orange’, ‘Barry Lyndon’ – they’re all so different.