8 Quotes by Allan Massie

Today the crime novelist has one advantage denied to writers of 'straight' or 'literary' novels. Unlike them he can range over all levels of society, for crime can easily breach the barriers that exist in our stratified society. Because of these barriers the modern literary novel, unlike its 19th-century predecessors, is often confined to the horizontal, dealing only with one class. But crime runs through society from top to bottom, and so the crime novelist can present a fuller picture of the way we live now.

All a writer's characters are imaginary, no matter whether they are based on real people or not. They are people as one imagines them to be.

Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.

Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilized folk to despise war.

We are responsible for actions performed in response to circumstances for which we are not responsible.

Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He’s the chap who makes it possible for civilized folk to despise war.

All a writer’s characters are imaginary, no matter whether they are based on real people or not. They are people as one imagines them to be.

Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.