Quotes from Irvine Welsh

Writing is such a good thing to do because you can't really get bored with it. If you're bored with writing, you're bored with life.

It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America.

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.'

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.

I would never have written 'Trainspotting' if it hadn't been for this album, 'Raw Power,' and 'Metallic K.O.'

If you're going to do something that's going to cause offence to people, you're always going to get a reaction.

It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.

There is nothing, really, that I wouldn't write about, and I do write about a lot of grim things.

Filmmaking is a much more collaborative thing than literature, so you know you're going to be working with a group of people at the start. You know it's going to be a compromise.

Holy Joy were a cult '80s band led by the wonderful songwriting genius that is Johny Brown.

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.

When you're in your twenties, it's the last time you have the chance to experiment with multiple identities, to decide who you're going to be in life.

It was quite life-affirming, for me, that I felt hat kind of pity for [Margaret Thatcher], because I didn't think I ever would.

Thir must be less tae life than this

Rebellion is always going to fascinate, as it's always packaged in a very safe way.

A lot of my characters are anti-heroes that became heroes.

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.'

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.

The first job of a writer is to be honest.

I think that every project offers an opportunity to reinvent process as well as content.

Historically, men have a hard time getting onboard with feminism, but I think that's changing.

What worries me is the professionalism of everything.

The idea of just sitting at home on Facebook worries me. I think we should all get out more.

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.