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" 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

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

" 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. "

" 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.' "

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

Irvine Welsh

Understand

Try

" So many people have become divorced from the system, criminalised by their lifestyle. "

" Standard English is very imperialistic, controlled, and precise; it's not got a lot of funk or soul to it. "

" 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

" It was around the summer of 1982 when the drug problem really impacted. It became a lifestyle rather than a recreation. When you start lying and stealing, you cannot con yourself you're in control any more. "

" 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

" When I left school at 16, I became an apprentice television and radio technician, and was paid £17 a week, which was decent money in 1976. But the job turned sour when I gave myself an electric shock while repairing a television set. "

" How can you be inspired by Cameron and Miliband? These guys are just drabness personified. "

" People should be able to express their culture without getting into all that chauvinistic thing. "

" I'm not really a mainstream novelist! "

" 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 think the silences we have on some issues are inductive of the fact that we need to write about them more, but I think there are some issues you have to write in a sensitive way and in a way that respects the reality of the situation. If you can't do that, you should leave them alone. "

" 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. "

" I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know? "

" When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music. "

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

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

" I'm the worst employee in the world. I'll cheat and steal time and resources from my employer, although I'll con everybody into believing I'm essential to the operation. "

" I enjoy the freedom of the blank page. "

" Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is. "

" The first job of a writer is to be honest. "

" 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. "

" You can't satirise darts, because it's hyper-real as it is; there's already enough over-the-top madness to it. "

" 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. "

" I just write the stuff I want to at the time, what feels right for me. "

Irvine Welsh

Time

Want

" From 'Trainspotting' to 'Acid House,' I moved from urban realism into fantasy. "

" You know what it's like: you don't want to read your old books again. All you can see are the flaws, what you would do differently. "