Quotes from Irvine Welsh

I haven't felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978 -Mark Renton

Spud gives Renton the kind of smile that would make old wifies in the street want to adopt him like a stray cat.

It had been a silly indulgence gone mad, a collective insanity.

Si tous les enculés de la terre niquaient quand ils ont la migraine, y aurait pas autant de problèmes.

Thir must be less tae life than this. More pain, then more sleep/pain.

This cunt's allergic tae water, especially if ye mix it wi fucking soap.

His eyes wir crystal clear and treacherous, untainted by conscience or compassion.

Nobody likes bullies. Even other bullies - often especially - feel obliged to at least profess a hatred of them. Yet we've all been bullied and bullied others. It's in all of us, with nations we call it imperialism. You start to wonder about yourself.

like a bairn trying tae stay up as late as possible.

Ah take some more crass humiliation for what seems like an eternity.

For a sadist, it must huv aw the interest ay sticking pins intae a plastic doll.

A powerful rage gripped us, seemingly coming fae nowhere. No, not fae nowhere. Strong emotions ay this type can only be generated by junk or the possibility of its absence. — What the fuck's this shite?

Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind.

Git tae fuck Stevie. You're pickin up some bad habits doon in London, ah'm tellin ye man. I fucking detest televised football. It's like shagging wi a durex oan. Safe fuckin sex, safe fuckin fitba, safe fuckin everything. Let's all build a nice safe wee world around ourselves, he mocked, his face contorting. Stevie had forgotten the extent of Sick Boy's natural outrage.

He told her: - I'm gaunnae fuck you like you've never been fucked in your life. He was right. She'd never been fucked that badly, either before or since.

Once ye accept that they huv that right, ye'll join them in the search fir this holy grail, this thing that makes ye tick. Ye'll then defer tae them, allowin yersel tae be conned intae believin any biscuit-ersed theory ay behaviour they choose tae attach tae ye. Then yir theirs, no yir ain; the dependency shifts from the drug to them.

Whit's aw this aboot? YE TAKE US AW THE WEY DOON HERE N THAIRE'S NAE FUCKIN PEEVE, YA CUNTS!

But he knows enough about the wealthy to realise that they seldom consider their own behaviour as actually or even potentially criminal. They've been compartmentalised all their lives; boarding school and university, home, trips during holidays. They are conditioned into thinking of themselves as operating in, and inhabiting, closed, secret institutions, where what they do is private and not the concern of society at large.

Sundown, and the bellies of the clouds flush pink. Renton reflecting that no matter how early you rise or how late you turn in, you never see that point where light begins or the first bruise of darkness bleeds in under its fragile skin; the beauty, and the scary, unfathomable wisdom of transition.

People were deferential to power. You just had to make the right noises.

Still, failure, success, what is it? Whae gies a fuck. We aw live, then we die, in quite a short space ay time n aw. That's it; end ay fuckin story.

There's nothing in his eyes but need.

They mean well, and they mean well tae me, but there's nae way under the sun that they can appreciate what ah feel, what ah need. Protect me from those who wish tae help us.

Failure kind of comes in all sorts of ways, and teaches you all sorts of things. You learn by failing.