The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you're dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings - and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern.

A good album should be more than the sum of its parts.

It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.

It seemed to him a very Edinburgh thing. Welcoming, but not very.

I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.

Witches never existed, except in people’s minds. All there was in the olden days was women and some men who believed in herbal cures and in folklore and in the wish to fly. Witches? We’re all witches in one way or another. Witches was the invention of mankind, son. We’re all witches beneath the skin.

At all times, think like a writer, and keep those antennae twitching - that way, you pick up new ideas.