218 Quotes by Iain Banks

Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change... If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual’s circumstances – and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse – then you don’t have life after death; you just have death.

Aye,’ McCann said ruefully, ’if yer rich yer just eccentric; if yer poor yer a nutcase an they stick ye in the bin.

There was a layer of grey-blue smoke in the room at about shoulder level, and a big wave in it, probably produced by me as I came in through the double doors of the back porch. The wave rose slowly between us while my father stared at me.

You have to have something worth saying and then the ability to say it- writing’s a double skill, really.

In so much of politics you’re not allowed to disagree with what’s been agreed.

Once you get over the simple unpleasantness of it – I suspect most people would gag, the first time – it is easier to wipe somebody else’s bum than it is your own, because you can see what you’re doing and use both hands at once if necessary. The whole process is much more efficient and uses no more toilet paper than is strictly required, so it’s better for the environment, too. If we were really green we’d all have somebody else wipe our bums, though I can’t see it catching on.

Our destination is the same in the end, but our journey – part chosen, part determined – is different for us all, and changes even as we live and grow.

Willy, one of the guys at the distillery, comes up with what Oliver and I agree is the best definition of what a ‘dram’ actually is: ‘A measure of whisky that is pleasing to both guest and host.

One of the advantages of having laws is the pleasure one may take in breaking them.