Quotes from Ian Rankin

What happens to sanity when you chain it to a wall?

Obsession came easy—especially to men—because it was a cheap way of achieving control, albeit control over something practically worthless.

went to take a look at it. A plaque

Poor girl. She would change. The idealism would vanish once she saw how hypocritical the whole game was, and what luxuries lay outside university. When she left, she'd want it all: the executive job in London, the flat, car, salary, wine-bar. She would chuck it all in for a slice of pie.

Nothing in the room was cheap, but none of it was exactly desirable either.

Scotsman's way of dealing with death. He'd found

Everyone, it seemed to him, lived their lives out of little boxes, opening different ones for different occasions. Nobody ever gave their whole self away. Cops were like that, each box a safety mechanism. Most people you met in the course of your life, you never even learned their names. Everybody was boxed off from everybody else. It was called society.

Rebus lifted a Guardian

He studied Arch Gowrie now. The man was big and fiftyish and probably attractive to women in that way older men could be.

Down Where the Drunkards Roll." "How

Sky glowing dull pink. Simmer dim, as the Shetlanders called

One of the other patients at the respiratory clinic had used a phrase – 'managed decline' – and it had stuck with Rebus. To him, it seemed to sum up his whole life since retirement, and maybe even before.

If arseholes could fly, this place would be an airport'.

Maybe you'd best mention Steele and Edwards to your boss.' 'Why?' 'So he can pull them in for questioning, have a bit of fun with them.' 'You think I'd be that vindictive?' 'If not, I didn't teach you much.

Also, he was more discriminating now than he had been then, back in the old days when he would read a book to its bitter end whether he liked it or not. These days, a book he disliked was unlikely to last ten pages of his concentration.

the club coincided.

You weren't kidding about the rolls," Rebus said, taking another bite. "Bacon just the right side of crispy," Robert Chatham agreed. They were seated across from one another at a booth with padded seats and a Formica-topped table. Mugs of dark-brown tea and plates in front of them, Radio Forth belting out from the kitchen.

Perhaps if he stopped praying, God would take the hint and stop being such a bastard to one of his few believers on this near-godforsaken planet.

was still a fine, persistent drizzle. There was a word in Scots for it—"smirr.

I went to the Oxford Bar first off, but they said they hardly see you these days. I'm at the age where nothing should surprise me, but

James and his team were readying to brief a lawyer from the Procurator Fiscal's office. The Fiscal Depute's name was Shona MacBryer. MacBryer knew Clarke, and the two shared a nod of greeting as she arrived. Fox and Oldfield were handing round mugs. Someone had splashed out on a cafetière and proper coffee, and the biscuits were Duchy Originals.

silly buggers

one was very

Rebus remembered that the premature withdrawal of the penis during intercourse for contraceptive reasons was often referred to as 'getting off at Haymarket.