Irvine Welsh

You can't lie to your soul.

— Irvine Welsh

“Nae cunt kens”

— Irvine Welsh

How did it make you feel?

— Irvine Welsh

“Same rules apply.”

— Irvine Welsh

Are you asking me or telling me?

— Irvine Welsh

“With the gift of faith, we move on.”

— Irvine Welsh

Writing has been handed to me on a plate.

— Irvine Welsh

Everything in the street today seems soft focus.

— Irvine Welsh

Hugo Boss is my kind of label.

— Irvine Welsh

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

— Irvine Welsh

“We all see what we want to see.”

— Irvine Welsh

“I reach into my bag and I pull out my claw hammer.”

— Irvine Welsh

In America, we've got to get back to these base principles of what democracy is.

— Irvine Welsh

The books that are really valuable are the books that evoke a sense of place.

— Irvine Welsh

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

— Irvine Welsh

“Schopenhauer was right: Life has to be about disillusionment stumbling inexorably towards the totally fucked.”

— 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

Conservatives are giving up on democracy because it's not efficient. They want an autocratic regime.

— Irvine Welsh

“I was used to heat but this place was so dry the trees were bribing the dogs.”

— Irvine Welsh

Now there is apparently a causal link between heroin addiction and vegetarianism.

— Irvine Welsh

His eyes are wild, psychotic slits that bat-dance in your soul looking for good things to crush or bad elements to identify…

— Irvine Welsh

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

— Irvine Welsh

You can't just have stuff that is free and escapist, you have to have stuff that is confrontational as well. You need…

— Irvine Welsh

The '90s was a decade of mundane market-consumer nothingness where there was nothing coming up from the streets; you just had someone…

— Irvine Welsh

Filmmaking is a much more collaborative thing than literature, so you know you're going to be working with a group of people…

— Irvine Welsh

In America I think we need to move towards a social democracy, European-style basically, and I think that in Britain we do…

— Irvine Welsh

“Statistically speaking, he reflects, you're more likely to be killed by a member of your own family or a close friend, than…

— Irvine Welsh

I have a lot of successful musician pals, and as I get older, I find that I'm lucky to be a writer.…

— Irvine Welsh

There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache…

— Irvine Welsh

If it's something that I feel uncomfortable with, that's a reason for me to write it. I kind of like to make…

— Irvine Welsh

People are really excited by Obama abroad because he seems to be the first American presidential candidate who has ambition to go…

— Irvine Welsh

Bruce, you’re an ugly and silly old man. You’re very possibly an alcoholic and God knows what else. You’re the type of…

— Irvine Welsh

“- Then whit? - Git a job. Or git oan a scheme. - No gaunnae stey oan n take Highers? - Naw.…

— Irvine Welsh

I think that Europe has to get its act together very quickly. The Belgian guy who's leading the negotiations against Brexit, he…

— Irvine Welsh

Chicago is seen as everything that Trump detests, which I think kind of reflects really well on the city I think, because…

— Irvine Welsh

“Begbie doesnae even notice; he's in his element, particularly good at funerals in the way a lot ay psychopaths tend tae be.…

— Irvine Welsh

I feel like I've exhausted guys and male friendships.

— Irvine Welsh

I enjoy the freedom of the blank page.

— Irvine Welsh

There is a kind of mysticism to writing.

— Irvine Welsh

I'm not really a mainstream novelist!

— Irvine Welsh