I just read an 800-page history of the Scottish Enlightenment and, honestly, I may as well just start it again now, because I cannot remember a single thing. I can barely remember where Scotland is.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My political awakening, if I can be as grand as to call it that, was all about what was happening around me. It wasn't some romantic, patriotic vision of Scotland going back to what it had been 300 years previously.
The Scottish Highlands are incredible. There seems to be magic and poetry everywhere.
I think Scotland has some great stories.
When I was young, I read everything I could lay my hands on, but the Scots in my storybooks spent their time fighting glorious battles, rowing across lochs, or escaping over moors of purple heather. Even those Scots were hard to find. For at school, we recited poetry according to the set texts the teachers taught us.
Although I don't live there anymore, Scotland is a great place for the people coming over to visit and to tour around the Highlands, because it is a very magical place.
The importance of education is ingrained in Scottish history.
It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.
I had a whole Scottish existence until we moved to London when I was four.
Working on 'Outlander' has been a delight, it really has. I had kind of forgotten what Scotland was like, and I'd turned into a bit of a Londoner.
Right from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to write palpably Scottish fiction.