-
Writing has been handed to me on a plate.
Irvine Welsh -
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.
Irvine Welsh
-
People in Scotland want the parliament but don't give a toss about the elections.
Irvine Welsh -
I'm the worst employee in the world. I'll cheat and steal time and resources from my employer, although I'll con everybody into believing I'm essential to the operation.
Irvine Welsh -
I grew up in a place where everybody was a storyteller, but nobody wrote. It was that kind of Celtic, storytelling tradition: everybody would have a story at the pub or at parties, even at the clubs and raves.
Irvine Welsh -
Dean Owens is Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter.
Irvine Welsh -
I'm the worst employer I could wish for because I push myself hard.
Irvine Welsh -
There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a London society, a highbrow literature celebrity society.
Irvine Welsh
-
You're on your own with the book. And while you are writing fiction, you're spending all this time with people who don't actually exist, which is just madness.
Irvine Welsh -
When I left school at 16, I became an apprentice television and radio technician, and was paid £17 a week, which was decent money in 1976. But the job turned sour when I gave myself an electric shock while repairing a television set.
Irvine Welsh -
Underground people pay a desperate toll finding out things nobody else has discovered yet. We run around like headless chickens looking for the next cultural fix to spiral around in before it gets appropriated somewhere else and becomes something it never was. There's this sort of one-upmanship in the underground.
Irvine Welsh -
I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.
Irvine Welsh -
I make out a play list for every character and buy the records they would listen to; it helps me find their personas. What they play, where they stay, who they lay, is my matrix for character development.
Irvine Welsh -
Middle-class people worry a lot about money. They worry a lot about job security, and they do a lot of nine-to-five stuff.
Irvine Welsh
-
When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them.
Irvine Welsh -
I wanted to capture the excitement of house music, almost like a four-four beat, and the best way to do that was to use a language that was rhythmic and performative.
Irvine Welsh -
It was around the summer of 1982 when the drug problem really impacted. It became a lifestyle rather than a recreation. When you start lying and stealing, you cannot con yourself you're in control any more.
Irvine Welsh -
I come up with a blurb at the beginning, but the book will always be completely different by the time it's finished. They say, 'Where's the book you were going to write?' And I say, 'Forget about it. It doesn't exist.'
Irvine Welsh -
If you're going to do something that's going to cause offence to people, you're always going to get a reaction.
Irvine Welsh -
Historically, men have a hard time getting onboard with feminism, but I think that's changing.
Irvine Welsh
-
For 'Filth,' we had about 12 producers on the thing. The opening credits go on for months. Most of them are actually financers rather than producers. And the only way that we could raise the budget without interference from a studio was to have a lot of different financers on board.
Irvine Welsh -
When I'm not writing, I read loads of fiction, but I've been writing quite constantly lately so I've been reading a lot of nonfiction - philosophy, religion, science, history, social or cultural studies.
Irvine Welsh -
Once you've been with each other in a primal, shagging state, it's hard to talk about the weather.
Irvine Welsh -
People either think I'm this totally savage, idiot-savant genius guy who's lucked out or they think I'm a super-manipulative crafty businessman, this kind of MBA guy who's spotted a gap in the market and knows how to create a product for it. It's flattering, but I've not got that much of a gameplan.
Irvine Welsh