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" I created something that became a phenomenon without becoming a prisoner to it. "
Irvine Welsh
Becoming
Something
Without
Related Quotes:
" 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. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Who
Leisure
" I left Edinburgh to follow the London punk scene in 1978, singing and playing guitar in various bands. My income was sporadic, so I did anything to eke out some kind of subsistence - laying down slabs, working as a kitchen porter. "
Irvine Welsh
Singing
Guitar
Kitchen
" Everybody that writes has their own area of inquiry. And mine has always been kind of, why is it that when life can be so hard and difficult, we compound it by self-sabotage, doing terrible things? That's always been my main area of inquiry, and it does lead you to dark places. "
Irvine Welsh
Dark
Kind
Life
" I'm not really a mainstream novelist! "
Irvine Welsh
Novelist
Mainstream
Really
" When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what you're doing is not any kind of public show, until you're ready for it. "
Irvine Welsh
Perfect
Writing
Start
" The first job of a writer is to be honest. "
Irvine Welsh
First
Writer
First Job
" When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them. "
Irvine Welsh
Town
Like
Book
" I wanted to capture the excitement of house music, almost like a four-four beat, and the best way to do that was to use a language that was rhythmic and performative. "
Irvine Welsh
Music
Language
House
" That's the kind of consumer society we live in. We're always looking for the next product that's going to change your life instead of just going out and changing your life. "
Irvine Welsh
Live
Looking
Life
" 'True Detective' was the last show I got crazy about, with its 'Silence of the Lambs'-style landscape and those strip mall badlands of America. "
Irvine Welsh
True
America
Crazy
" Underground people pay a desperate toll finding out things nobody else has discovered yet. We run around like headless chickens looking for the next cultural fix to spiral around in before it gets appropriated somewhere else and becomes something it never was. There's this sort of one-upmanship in the underground. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Looking
Finding
" I've eaten ice cream from all over the world, but until you've tasted Graham's from Geneva, Illinois, you haven't had ice cream at all. "
Irvine Welsh
World
Ice Cream
Over
" I have a lot of successful musician pals, and as I get older, I find that I'm lucky to be a writer. I have great anonymity compared to musicians who sell the same number of records as I do books. "
Irvine Welsh
Find
Successful
Same
" I'm working on a screenplay right now for the BBC, but I hope to have the decks cleared soon so I can get into the studio with my pals and put down some more tracks, try to get a strong dance single together. "
Irvine Welsh
Try
Dance
Down
" What happens when you get any kind of entrenched power is that it just becomes kind of corrupt and self-serving. "
Irvine Welsh
You
Corrupt
Happens
" I'm trying to make really flawed characters that have got redeeming features so people can say, 'I don't really like that character, but I can understand a bit where they've come from.' "
Irvine Welsh
I Can
Character
Trying
" A lot of my characters are anti-heroes that became heroes. "
Irvine Welsh
Became
Lot
Heroes
" A lot of people pulled me up after 'Trainspotting' for its absence of politics, but the argument I make is that the absence of politics is political as well. "
Irvine Welsh
Me
Political
People
" There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a London society, a highbrow literature celebrity society. "
Irvine Welsh
Create
Literature
Now
" Hugo Boss is my kind of label. "
Irvine Welsh
Hugo
Kind
Label
" People in Scotland want the parliament but don't give a toss about the elections. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Elections
Want
" Rebellion is always going to fascinate, as it's always packaged in a very safe way. "
Irvine Welsh
Going
Always
Rebellion
" I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence. "
Irvine Welsh
Audience
Perceive
Pure
" What worries me is the professionalism of everything. "
Irvine Welsh
Professionalism
Me
Worries
" It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America. "
Irvine Welsh
Me
Understand
Try
" I grew up in a place where everybody was a storyteller, but nobody wrote. It was that kind of Celtic, storytelling tradition: everybody would have a story at the pub or at parties, even at the clubs and raves. "
Irvine Welsh
Tradition
Kind
Nobody
" It's very difficult to be objective about yourself and your own circumstances, but one thing I do know about is that I grew up surrounded by storytellers. "
Irvine Welsh
Yourself
Circumstances
Up
" I think a lot of people want me to be like the characters in the books: they want that kind of congruence. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Me
Like
" It's part of me, Scotland. I'm still immersed in it even though I am not there. "
Irvine Welsh
Me
Still
Immersed
" Everyone needs some kind of compelling drama in their life, basically. "
Irvine Welsh
Kind
Everyone
Drama