Top 1200 Quotes & Sayings by Scottish Authors - Page 11

Words are like untying a corset - you can move into this great space with them.

I was very worried about being unattractive because I think I look quite masculine. Sometimes I feel more masculine than feminine and I don't like it.

Boldness and decision command, often even in evil, the respect and concurrence of mankind.

There's not one person at any club I've been at who would turn around and say I'm a bad egg, it's only been at Aston Villa. That speaks volumes.

Look back, and smile on perils past.

I have always said that it is completely about the music, and I have never been interested in anything else. I think I've been able to maintain that. I'm a totally normal person, I don't get followed or have photographers waiting outside my door. So yes I have a very ordinary life.

We meet a lot of people, we drink lots of stuff and have lots of fun.

There's room in the world for one historical folk-rock singer to make a decent living, and I happen to be it.

I generally play villains once every three or four years by choice because I get offered villainous roles a lot, because of the way I look and whatever. And I tend to avoid them because I think you can end up in a cul-de-sac of your own making if you're cast in that.

And on 25 January of each year and for many days before it and after it there is not an hour in the day or night when a Burns Supper is not taking place somewhere on this earth.

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.

I am an optimist even though I am told everything I do is negative and cynical.

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb the steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?

In Edinburgh, there was a lovely little Episcopalian Church of Scotland church on my way to the theater, so I used to pop in there and soak up the atmosphere.

The world rolls round forever like a mill; it grinds out death and life and good and ill; it has no purpose, heart or mind or will.

People tend to put too much focus on the lyrics. It's not the be-all and end-all of our songs.

It's not a man's world any more.

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.

I had a ridiculously idyllic childhood. I think back and am like, 'Wow. I was so naive, in the best way.'

This may sound strange, but although I feel like I know everything about my characters, the brand of shampoo they use, how many cavities they have, their greatest fear, I don't actually see their faces.

Cooking is about passion, so it may look slightly temperamental in a way that it's too assertive to the naked eye.

I desire to put off my trial as long as I can till I can get my evidence ready.

The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

If you get too big for your boots, if you've got big dreams, you're gonna get them broken or shattered.

There are many stages, but the first step is an absolute given - the fans want blood, sweat and tears for the badge. That is no different in any workplace.

It would be sad if we lost our instinct and our courage to love and protect.

I remember with 'Ratcatcher,' in the script it was beautiful blue skies and sunny every day, but it rained constantly. You have to go with what the film is going to be.

It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.

I read tons of comic books. My favourite is Grant Morrison, a Scottish comic writer.

Rich, poor, white, people of colour, are all equally irreplaceable.

I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

I've been asked a lot lately if tennis is clean or not. I don't know any more how you judge whether a sport is clean. If one in 100 players is doping, in my eyes that isn't a clean sport.

When the plane is delayed, it's not the fault of the girl at the desk. I'm resigned to the fact that everything is out of my control and that air travel nowadays is barbaric.

As a writer I care about America, and care about its carelessness.

In any art movement, the art has to move into a new phase - a filmmaker has a desire to make a film that is not like a previous film.

The proper balance between individual liberty and central authority is a very ancient problem.

The stature of Liverpool means they want to win trophies.

To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever.

As F1 is a male-dominated environment, you have to prove yourself. And first of all that means being given the chance to prove yourself.

But, strictly speaking, this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion, for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the worshippers.

I like to walk when I can. Otherwise, it's the bus - while we still have them.

The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins.

I'm always trying to encapsulate how we, as emotional beings, interact with the world and the machines and technology around us - being able to emote through those things. They're not antithetical or mutually exclusive.

I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty.

I love sci-fi because it leads in the imagination, and I always say it has the most intelligent fans in the world.

Arthur Scargill's leadership of the miners' strike has been a disgrace. The price to be paid for his folly will be immense. He will have destroyed the N.U.M. as an effective fighting force within British trade unionism for the next 20 years. If kamikaze pilots were to form their own union, Arthur would be an ideal choice for leader.

The contemporary crime novel is, at its best, a novel of character. That's where the suspense comes from.

Do you know there are at least seven ways to view Niagara Falls ... one of the natural wonders of the world?

I always wanted to be a musician from when I was kid. It was always a massive dream of mine. School was also really really important to me and having an education was top of my priority. So I really wanted to have a degree before I tried anything in the music industry.

Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown.

If you are feeling something, then Shakespeare felt it and wrote about it - and wrote about it so eloquently.

I'm really quite normal. My imagination has some serious kinks in it, that's all.

The present is a point just passed.

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

I wasn't frightened of people, but I didn't have a clue about the adult world.

I was always interested in myths growing up. So, first I got into some Roman myths, then I was interested in Norse, then Celtic, then I started spreading to all the other mythologies.

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

The trick was really finding the appropriate publisher for each of the projects I'd devised.