Top 1200 Quotes & Sayings by Scottish Authors - Page 18

When you do a movie as opposed to a TV show, it's always tempting to think everything has to be big and exaggerated and spectacular. And in fact, a lot of the funniest comedy films have been very intimate.

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.

Contextualize the music. I really hope to do more of that.

There's one part of the forest in Wales, it's like a natural bowl, and when we drove into it last time, it was getting dark. And as you came over the hill you could see fireworks being set off, the whole place was lit up and you could see this huge crowd all jumping up and down and cheering.

It's incredible considering the public perception that he was tight fisted and he was more than prudent, and lacked ambition to take Tottenham to where the fans wanted them to be.

Redefining marriage will have huge implications for what is taught in our schools, and for wider society. It will redefine society since the institution of marriage is one of the fundamental building blocks of society. The repercussions of enacting same-sex marriage into law will be immense.

There's a big difference between doing the odd gig and actually having a record out and your name being on the ticket.

So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I'm free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles.

Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.

Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.

I've got a really sweet tooth and sometimes I just have to have some chocolate.

I do not care so much for the death of my gunner, as for other passages of my voyage, for I have good friends in England that will bring me off for that.

I try to live honestly in every aspect of my life, which can make things a bit more complicated, right?

Football management is such a pressurised thing - horseracing is a release. I'm also learning to play the piano - I'm quite determined - it's another release from the pressure of my job.

As an actor, I'm familiar with having bursts of energy, where you're giving things a try, and then you have down time.

Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.

I want to get to the moon. I want to go to Mars.

Believe me, my children have more stamina than a power station.

In teaching, I wanted to offer a general pharmacology course based on chemical principles, biochemical classification and mathematical modelling. In the event I achieved neither of my ambitions.

The main stem was then in most cases twisted in a zigzag form, which process checked the flow of the sap, and at the same time encouraged the production of side branches at those parts of the stem where they were most desired.

If anybody asks me to do a job, I say, 'Yes.' I've said yes to everything.

Sailing is a completely new sport for me and I wasn't sure what to expect but I've definitely got the bug.

Now I am near to the getting of my crown, which shall be sure; for I bless the Lord, and desire all of you to bless Him that He hath brought me here, and makes me triumph over devils, and men, and sin: they shall wound me no more.

When I left 'Downton Abbey,' it hadn't yet taken off and become the phenomenon that it is, to this day. That all happened after I left. But, it was fabulous to be a part of it and to be a part of the cast. We had an absolute ball!

I think if you don't expect anything from the world, you'll have a lovely time.

There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do.

You work so hard to get to a level and you need to grab your chance with both hands.

I'm enjoying myself at Celtic, I really like it here. I think it's a great club with great team-mates who have made me feel welcome.

The advantage to Great Britain of a regular free trade in corn would, therefore, be more by raising the rest of the world to our standard and price, than by lowering the prices here to the standard of the Continent.

Without humility there can be no humanity.

I don't let housekeeping in when I stay in hotels. It cuts down on all the caustic cleaning products and aggressive water usage, and I never use the little plastic bottles of toiletries they set out.

I could go fishing with Paul Gascoigne, I could go for a pint and a game of doms with Ian Durrant. There's no way I would play now rather than the era I played in. We had a life.

Hope... is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes has within him the gift of miracles.

And oddly, when I was a kid I used to look at junkyards and I wanted to have one of my own.

People think I'm Snow White... the most boring person in the world!

How blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt.

Self-indulgence is something to watch, but anything that helps you understand situations that are difficult to understand is good. If you're having some sort of emotional trauma, you need to find a person to talk to about it who says, 'This is quite normal; it's fine.'

That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.

And I hereby distinctly and emphatically declare that I consider myself, and earnestly desire to be considered by others, as utterly divested, now and during the rest of my life, of any such rights, the barbarous relics of a feudal, despotic system.

My elder brother and sister were both sporty and academic, and I think, subconsciously, I knew I couldn't go down that avenue.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

The 325-foot Seagram Tower is the most southerly and closest to the Canadian falls and also affords the best view of the churning upper rapids of the Niagara river.

Our politics is about people not flags.

Well, there's this culture on Instagram where everyone uses filters and lighting, or people smooth their skin out. It's this weird thing. We all know it's not real and we all complain about it, yet we all do it.

I know I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've done some good things along the way.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I was maybe too quick to leave Fulham.

I've always been a geek and slightly awkward... slightly umm... I was never the cool kid at school.

It was a bit unimaginable when I began that I'd ever get to 25 books. But it was also unimaginable how much crime-writing would have changed.

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.

I completely love directing.

My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colorful character and a keen reader who encouraged me to write.

With some other top players I'm part of a company trying to put on events in Europe, especially Germany, but also Poland, Austria, Russia. There's so much talent coming out of the Far East now, and we want the same thing in Europe.

People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well. If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well... that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.

So people will come along and do new things and sometimes return to the spirit of an earlier age.

Comics don't work if the story is all in the text and the images are illustrative. It's hard to have enough faith in the artists to allow them to do their job.

Everything connected with war and warlike exploits is interesting to a boy.

In general, the auditions I go up for are very sparse, I guess because of my ethnicity. And the characters are very similar: shy, innocent and naive; the connotations that come from the way that I look.

But if it not be true, the myth itself requires to be explained, and every principle of philosophy and common sense demand that the explanation be sought, not in arbitrary allegorical categories, but in the actual facts of ritual or religious custom to which the myth attaches.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

I don't want to see people decorating a house or digging a garden. As for guys like Jonathan Ross, he got an award there last Christmas. What for? He doesn't sing, dance or tell jokes, does he?