When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Sometimes a book influences me because it winds me up. There'll be something that gets under my skin and makes me think… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I've always got a book in my hands, a novel in my hands. The more I get into film, the more paranoid… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When you start off with your first book, people assume that you're like all the characters in the book - and it… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Basically, particularly in Britain, it's a hegemonic thing that people who write tend to come from the leisure classes. They can afford… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I'd always liked to read, but when I picked up books I wasn't getting the same kind of excitement from them that… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When you look at the whole explosion of the Internet, the decline of print journalism, there are all of these plus-or-minus ramifications,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I think the novel is at one end of the art-entertainment continuum - the play in the middle - while TV and… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
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… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When I go to places and do book tours, I don't really like doing traditional bookshops. It's nice to walk people through… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Before I started writing, I'd never read much fiction. I was more interested in non-fiction. I'm taking the same approach to theatre:… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I think a lot of people want me to be like the characters in the books: they want that kind of congruence. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
You know what it's like: you don't want to read your old books again. All you can see are the flaws, what… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
The books that are really valuable are the books that evoke a sense of place. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I don't see [ Trainspotting ] as an albatross, I see it more as a calling card. It's got me out to Hollywood, I've… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
He emphasised basic truths: you are not dying yet, you have to live your life until you are. Underpinning them was the belief that… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
“Without this kickstart to my day, I'd be lost. A day without a morning run is a day you fumble through, rather than one… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
“There's nae reasoning wi some cats. You say 'reason', they mew 'treason'. Ken?” — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
It's crazy for somebody who's kind of empowered and wealthy like myself to say, "Oh, I don't need to be patronized by the state,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
When you go away, you see where you come from in a different light. I see Scotland, and the rest of Britain, as much… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
If it's something that I feel uncomfortable with, that's a reason for me to write it. I kind of like to make myself feel… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
There's nothing worse than a violent beating from an unremarkable person. Physical violence with someone is too much like shagging them. Too much id… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
If I stop working and publishing, and TV, and film and all that, I would be dead within a couple of weeks. I don't… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I can see why the Russians love Robert Burns, I think that Russians and Koreans have a very similar outlook to Scots. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
If you continue to transfer the wealth of the population of the planet to a very small amount of people, it becomes untenable at… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Most middle-class people I know don't really live like me. Middle-class people worry a lot about money. They worry a lot about job security,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image