Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith
R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a British writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth24 August 1948
bleak books dwell encompass manifold particular terrible
Fiction is able to encompass books that are bleak and which dwell on the manifold and terrible problems of our times. But I don't think that all books need to have that particular focus.
asking characters people wherever
Wherever I go in the world, people all know about Scotland Street and are always asking me about what's going to happen to the characters next.
suffering-of-others imagination moral
It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.
moved music opera people
The point of opera is that people are moved by the emotions and music.
country intimacy million people related tend
There is this intimacy still in Botswana. It's a country of just under two million people, and there's this sense of connectedness, in that people tend to be related to one another.
hook novels serial
Serial novels have an unexpected effect; they hook the writer as well as the reader.
books constant country fed great lives paint people picture pleased portray positive poverty problems puts reporting success welcome
I think people in Botswana are pleased that my books paint a positive picture of their lives and portray the country as being very special. They've made a great success of their country, and the people are fed up with the constant reporting of only the problems and poverty of the continent. They welcome something which puts the positive side.
life local
The local community is very important in one's life; the feelings of identification with a place and people.
life smaller
If you lose sight of the smaller accomplishments, you end up with an imbalance in your life.
children giving long
I've also long since realized that the way to really engage children is to give out prizes; it's amazing how it concentrates their minds.
people important abandon
Ritual is a terribly important, binding cement in a society. If we abandon formality and rituals, we're actually weakening the relationships that exist between people that bind.
men dust looks
I would certainly never consider myself a Renaissance Man; I'm not fit to look at the dust from the chariot wheels of many of those who have gone before me.