Val McDermid

“Back in the day, when I started, you were still allowed to make mistakes. You got to make your mistakes in public, in a way. I think the world was a more forgiving place when I started my career, in the sense that we got time and space to develop as a writer.”

“Walking by water frees your creativity. I don't know how it works - there's something about it that's liberating.”

“As Richard has pointed out on several occasions, I subscribe to the irregular verb theory of life: I am a trained investigator, you have a healthy curiosity, she/he is a nosy parker.”

“I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.”

“I don't think many of us launched ourselves into the world of writing books fully formed.”

“I don't think of myself as Scottish or lesbian when I sit down and write. I am glad I have broken out of that limited audience.”

“I've never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.”

“We weren't dirt poor, but there was no spare money kicking around. While it was very much understood that the way to a better life was through education, books were a luxury we couldn't afford. But when I was six, we actually moved opposite the central library, and that became my home from home.”

“I think that crime is a good vehicle for looking at society in general because the nature of the crime novel means that you draw on a wide group of social possibilities.”

“There is still a funny notion that women should not write violent fiction.”

“We all present versions of ourselves. The person you are at work is not the same person you are at home. The face we present in our most intimate relationships is not the face we present to the world.”

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

“One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today - love, money, family. They haven't gone out of fashion, so it's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to rework her in a contemporary style.”

“Why do the police need to know where I am? In the hands of a benevolent government, they could be looking after your interests, but what if the next government isn't so benevolent?”