Irvine Welsh Quotes
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Television has become the government, priest, psychotherapist - the legitimiser of our egos.
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I left Edinburgh to follow the London punk scene in 1978, singing and playing guitar in various bands. My income was sporadic, so I did anything to eke out some kind of subsistence - laying down slabs, working as a kitchen porter.
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As soon as you've written it, you're thinking about how it can move into different mediums.
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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.
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There is a kind of mysticism to writing.
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There's something about the modern era where it's very hard to transgress - we're all so online, easier to track by mobile phone - so you have people who do it on your behalf.
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'Ulysses' is like a big box of tricks that you can dive into. Each time you read it, you find something new.
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Historically, men have a hard time getting onboard with feminism, but I think that's changing.
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It's different in Scotland. People who come to readings are more interested in literature as such, but the readership in general is really quite diverse. It's a cliche, but it's said that people who read my books don't read any other books, and you do get that element.
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We've become used to processing images that are part of the non-linear narrative theory. I think there's a thinner line between fantasy and normality. People spend much more time in their own heads now. There's so much to conform to, so many influences coming at you.
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It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America.
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Writers in Britain aren't really celebrities. You become kind of a darling of a small set.
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Sometimes ah think that people become junkies just because they subconsiously crave a wee bit ay silence.
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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.
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'We are all acquaintances now'. It goes beyond our personal junk circumstances; a brilliant metaphor for our times.
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Boxing gives you such a good workout, although I've stopped sparring. When your hand speed goes, you're going to get caught, and you can't afford to take cumulative smacks on the chops when you're a writer.
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I have a lot of successful musician pals, and as I get older, I find that I'm lucky to be a writer. I have great anonymity compared to musicians who sell the same number of records as I do books.
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Holy Joy were a cult '80s band led by the wonderful songwriting genius that is Johny Brown.
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Everybody that writes has their own area of inquiry. And mine has always been kind of, why is it that when life can be so hard and difficult, we compound it by self-sabotage, doing terrible things? That's always been my main area of inquiry, and it does lead you to dark places.
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I just write the stuff I want to at the time, what feels right for me.
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It's very difficult to be objective about yourself and your own circumstances, but one thing I do know about is that I grew up surrounded by storytellers.
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The idea is not enough. And the most annoying thing for me as a writer is that people will come up to me and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I'm not a writer, but I've got a great story.'
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Everybody in my family were great storytellers. My dad and his brothers would just go on and on; they could tell amazing stories. I think it was something to do with the Celtic, oral storytelling tradition. People very much had that propensity towards telling tales.
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Ah jist shrugged, - Well, as one anarchist plumber sais tae the other: smash the cistern.