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 Copy Share Image
I think there is a natural thing that you feel when you've written something taboo because you just don't want to expose… — 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
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. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I'm not really interested in courting controversy, but I am interested in exploring issues that other people would deem to be controversial. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I tried to write 'Trainspotting' in standard English, but people weren't talking like that. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Most people in the West are not politicized. They're the most simplistic consumers - they're animals, basically. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Politicians are so... detested; they don't actually walk amongst people now. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
People are really excited by Obama abroad because he seems to be the first American presidential candidate who has ambition to go… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Chicago is seen as everything that Trump detests, which I think kind of reflects really well on the city I think, because… — 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
Words should have the power to inform and to move, not the power to send people scurrying away. But if you attach… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I'm always watching people over a short time frame, putting them in an extreme position. Sometimes you don't see the humanity in… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
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
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… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
You have to let people express themselves in the way that they need to express themselves. You have to express yourself in… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I'm not interested in details that might get someone into trouble. I'm more interested in generalities rather than the particulars, as a… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
We have to concentrate back on: Where is the money going? Where's it been going for the last thirty years? How do… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
We were looking for someone who could get the film [Filth] made at that kind of level, with the finance we wanted,… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
Underground people pay a desperate toll finding out things nobody else has discovered yet. We run around like headless chickens looking for… — 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… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
People go to the big urban centres because they have a quality of life, a quality of intellectual inquiry in the big… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I think that there are just so many people that can't afford not to have Obama win. He's gotten so many disenfranchised… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
People in Scotland want the parliament but don't give a toss about the elections. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
You write people as human beings first and then the gender specific stuff second. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
People think if you're working class, there has to be some fascist element underneath. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
You're never going to get beyond other people's preconceptions of what you are and what you're about. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
In my flat in Chicago, I've got this big room with an office in the corner and a balcony so I can… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
So many people have become divorced from the system, criminalised by their lifestyle. — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
People love talking about their jobs. Take them out, buy them lunch or take them for a beer and they'll talk about… — 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
You know, people tend to get stereotyped for about forty percent of their behavior, so if you're completely crazy forty percent of… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I think that in the future, as more and more money and wealth goes to the 1 per cent, it's going to… — 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
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
A lot of people pulled me up after 'Trainspotting' for its absence of politics, but the argument I make is that the… — 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
Sometimes there's a snobbery among literary types that these people don't really get it, but in a lot of ways they get… — Irvine Welsh Copy Share Image
I'm trying to make really flawed characters that have got redeeming features so people can say, 'I don't really like that character,… — 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
![“We were looking for someone who could get the film [Filth] made at that kind of level, with the finance we wanted, and we spoke to a lot of people. When I met James [McAvoy] in the Soho Hotel with Jon Baird, the director, he looked about ten years old. I thought there's no way he's going to be a…” quote by Irvine Welsh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d43/irvine-welsh-843_alcoholics_we-were-looking-for-someone-who-could-ge_1584255.jpg)
![“I think that there are just so many people that can't afford not to have Obama win. He's gotten so many disenfranchised people back into the political system that if he didn't win, the disillusionment in America and the idea of more of the same failed policies of the last eight years [2000-2008]…” quote by Irvine Welsh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1cc/irvine-welsh-843_america_i-think-that-there-are-just-so-many-peop_700710.jpg)
![“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 got a good agent, I've got a good manager, I'm getting a lot of work out there and doing a lot of stuff - getting a lot of film projects on the go.” quote by Irvine Welsh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/918/irvine-welsh-843_agents_i-don-t-see-trainspotting-as-an-albatros_7750.jpg)
