I used to think that: whenever I heard that someone had taken 10 years to write a novel, I’d think it must be a big, serious book. Now I think, ‘No – it took you...

It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.

I am, of course, a frustrated rock star – I’d much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop. Still, it’s not a bad life, is it? You just sit...

I wrote my first short story for a competition and won second prize. Another competition came up and I won first prize. The first story was published in a newspaper. The second went out on...

This was the winter of 2008/9. Work was ongoing to reinstate a tram system in the city. A lot of people couldn’t see the point of trams and many more disliked the disruption. Streets were...

I don’t think I have one particular favourite writer. I have many whose works I will always buy or reread – Muriel Spark, Anthony Powell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ruth Rendell, James Ellroy, William McIlvanney, Kate...

I’m often asked how I write books, but I don’t think my approach is suitable for everyone. If I walked into a creative writing class, all I could say to them was ‘I tend to...

The man nodded and brought a bottle from the glass-fronted fridge,

You need a great idea, but then you’ve got to carry it through. If you get it right, you’re going to be a critical success. But not everyone who works hard gets it right, or...

My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn’t making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I’d have...

From this height the sleeping city seems like a child’s construction, a model which has refused to be constrained by imagination. The volcanic plug might be black Plasticine, the castle balanced solidly atop it a...

I don’t have many friends. It’s not because I’m a misanthrope. It’s because I’m reserved. I’m self-contained. I get all my adventures in my head when I’m writing my books.

Witches never existed, except in people’s minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We’re...

And little girls went to charm schools. Now you’ve all got degrees from the University of Sarcasm.

No matter how many awards you’ve won or how many sales you’ve got, come the next book it’s still a blank sheet of paper and you’re still panicking like hell that you’ve got nothing new...

This man had something to hide, some shame in his past, and those with a past can always be bought.

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...

My father was a slave to capitalist ideology. He didn’t know what he was doing.””You mean you went to an expensive school?

At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching – that way, you pick up new ideas.

I’ve always written. At the age of six or seven, I would get sheets of A4 paper and fold them in half, cut the edges to make a little eight-page booklet, break it up into...

Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.

War created bizarre allies, while peace itself could be divisive.

I think writers have to be proactive: they’ve got to use new technology and social media. Yes, it’s hard to get noticed by traditional publishers, but there’s a great deal of opportunity out there if...

A lot of writers, especially crime writers, have an image that we think we’re trying to keep up with. You’ve got to be seen as dark and slightly dangerous. But I’m not like that and...

You wouldn’t think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we’ll do it one day. That’s how negligent we are.

I’m interested in Scotland now and then, how it’s changed. I want to get the reader to think about that by thinking about something from the past. How has society changed, how has policing changed,...

I took the first James Kelman novel, ‘The Bus Conductor Hines’, home to my dad. I thought, ‘My dad will like this; it’s written in Scots.’ But my dad said: ‘I can’t read that.’ He...

…trapped in limbo, believing in a lack of belief, but not necessarily lacking the belief to believe.

I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We’re still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.