Allan Massie

“What you have in the Union is a partnership, and a partnership can be dissolved.”

“Character is plot; plot is character.”

“Sport is a wonderful metaphor for life. Of all the sports that I know, the best metaphor for life is cricket.”

“History is a great deal more than the propaganda of the victors.”

“A novel which is moral must be an exploration of the problems of conduct.”

“A sense of history is a sense of the tragic.”

“The first duty of a novelist is to be a storyteller.”

“Good conversation should be a gentle interchange of opinion, not a contest.”

“The best of life is conversation.”

“A gentleman is someone who never insults anyone unintentionally.”

“The business of a novelist is not to solve problems, but to state them.”

“In politics, it is almost impossible to get a hearing for a moderate view.”

“Memory is a great artist. It simplifies, it selects, it eliminates.”

“The novel is a moral proposition. It's a way of examining the world, of examining the way we live.”