98 Quotes by Denise Mina

Because I write prose, when I sat down to write a comic, it feels like my brain's working differently. It actually feels like different bits of my head are springing into action.

Comics don't work if the story is all in the text and the images are illustrative. It's hard to have enough faith in the artists to allow them to do their job.

The eternal companions of all clever women are mistrust and scorn.

I came from this very traditional background and I benefited hugely from feminism. I felt privileged going to university and doing a PhD. Most people of my background don’t get to do that.

If you’ve ever had to run you know that stuff is just stuff. Even rich people can only stand in one room at a time.

To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person’s intellect. It becomes your default position.

I always wanted to work at Take A Break magazine, you know, just to inject a little bit of politics into their stories. I applied for a job there after I’d done my law degree and didn’t even get an interview. I only wrote Garnethill because I didn’t get that job!

In the ‘Garnethill’ trilogy, people always forget that Maureen O’Donnell’s dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law, but no-one ever thinks they’re middle-class – they’re just working class because they speak with accents.

People are interested in crime fiction when they’re quite distanced from crime. People in Darfur are not reading murder mysteries.