“I have always hated that damn James Bond. I’d like to kill him.”

Everyone talks about how they knew the Bond films were going to be a success, but it simply isn’t true.

All the Bond films had their good points.

I’m an easy target because of my political opinions.

I like women. I don’t understand them, but I like them.

I am not a politician and I have no intention of being one.

I never trashed a hotel room or did drugs.

Scotland should be nothing less than equal with all the other nations of the world.

Only 4 percent of all the companies owned in Scotland have their head offices in Scotland.

I just think the most difficult thing to displace is privilege.

I met my wife through playing golf. She is French and couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak French, so there was little chance of us getting involved in any boring conversations – that’s why we got married really quickly.

I have no shortage of material or offers, it’s just a case of what you select to do. But I think it’s realistic that my chances of playing Romeo are now over.

I don’t think I’ll ever act again. I have so many wonderful memories, but those days are over.

I’ve never kept a record of anything.

There’s always a new challenge to keep you motivated.

There’s a lot of fantasy about what Scotland is, and the shortbread tins and that sort of thing.

When you hear someone from the very north of Scotland speaking, I think its nice, very musical and harmonious.

It hugs the easy way of damning those whom it cannot understand, of excluding those who look different, and it salves its conscience with a self-draped cloak of righteousness

I’m old and crazy, but I still give a damn. And I still think the boys got screwed over in Vietnam.

Damn description, it is always disgusting.

But where I can get prickly and combative is, if I’m just called a sci-fi writer. I’m not. I’m a novelist and poet. Don’t shove me into your damn pigeonhole, where I don’t fit, because I’m all over.

Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles, damn the men that run the shops, oh, damn their measured merriment.

The worst part of being gay in the twentieth century is all that damn disco music to which one has to listen.

So when you act like the individual is not important, well, it is damn important who these people are and what they are.

I hate getting haircuts. It’s like going to the damn dentist, man.