Irvine Welsh Quotes
-
I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.
-
I just want to get on and tell stories.
-
Rebellion is always going to fascinate, as it's always packaged in a very safe way.
-
When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.
-
People think if you're working class, there has to be some fascist element underneath.
-
You can't satirise darts, because it's hyper-real as it is; there's already enough over-the-top madness to it.
-
I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence.
-
I feel like I've exhausted guys and male friendships.
-
It's where you come from that's the strange, exotic, quirky, mad place.
-
In my flat in Chicago, I've got this big room with an office in the corner and a balcony so I can watch people go by.
-
From 'Trainspotting' to 'Acid House,' I moved from urban realism into fantasy.
-
It's ironic that the growth of Scottish nationalism has precipitated in the English the sort of hand-wringing the Scots have always done over who they are.
-
It's part of me, Scotland. I'm still immersed in it even though I am not there.
-
I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.
-
I think a lot of people want me to be like the characters in the books: they want that kind of congruence.
-
When I started off with Trainspotting, it was the way the characters came to me. That's how they sounded to me. It seemed pretentious to sound any other way. I wasn't making any kind of political statement.
-
I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know?
-
When you grow up in a place, you always think it's mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you've got it the wrong way 'round.
-
I'm not really a mainstream novelist!
-
I'm always watching people over a short time frame, putting them in an extreme position. Sometimes you don't see the humanity in a person because the time frame is so short and the circumstance so extreme.
-
People should be able to express their culture without getting into all that chauvinistic thing.
-
When you go away, you see where you come from in a different light. I see Scotland, and the rest of Britain, as much more exotic than I used to.
-
Writing has been handed to me on a plate.
-
Basically, particularly in Britain, it's a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford the time and the books.