Philip Kerr

“I used to play quite a good lead guitar, R&B style. Clapton and BB King are heroes.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 love sitting at my desk and facing a quiet day with a pen in my hand, and putting myself into a story. It's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, to absent myself from real life and make up stories is strange, but I started doing this when I was ten years old. It was all I wanted to do.”

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

“Dalia picked up her negligee. She didn't need my help, it wasn't very heavy.”

“History asks us to imagine ourselves in a period, but it's a very different situation when you're in that period and faced with those situations.”

“I was a member of Corstorphine Library in Edinburgh, and every Friday night, my parents took me there to borrow books. I also used to spend nearly all my pocket money on books.”

“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.”

“Believe me, I know a lot about harm's way. It turns sharp left off the road to Shitsville when you're least expecting it.”

“The mark of a writer is to make a story as likely as possible, and I've done my best to deliver authentic atmosphere.”

“I really wanted to write the way Kubrick makes films - 'Strangelove,' '2001', 'Clockwork Orange', 'Barry Lyndon' - they're all so different.”

“It's not easy being the world's policeman. No one thanks you for it.”

“There is always a temptation to take things for granted, to get lazy, and to presume that the reader knows more than they do.”

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

“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.”

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

“The fascination for me writing about crime in Berlin was the idea that there was this much bigger crime taking place in the background, a fantastically epochal moment in history which is just going on. That just sort of makes the whole thing have a greater resonance.”

“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.”