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" In my flat in Chicago, I've got this big room with an office in the corner and a balcony so I can watch people go by. "
Irvine Welsh
Watch
Office
I Can
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" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Irvine Welsh
Myself
Radio
School
" 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
" One of the things you want as a successful writer is the anonymity. "
Irvine Welsh
Writer
Things
Want
" Boxing gives you such a good workout, although I've stopped sparring. When your hand speed goes, you're going to get caught, and you can't afford to take cumulative smacks on the chops when you're a writer. "
Irvine Welsh
Good
Boxing
Going
" There is a kind of mysticism to writing. "
Irvine Welsh
Mysticism
Kind
Writing
" The first job of a writer is to be honest. "
Irvine Welsh
First
Writer
First Job
" It's different in Scotland. People who come to readings are more interested in literature as such, but the readership in general is really quite diverse. It's a cliche, but it's said that people who read my books don't read any other books, and you do get that element. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Said
You
" The cultural war of words has actually been won by the most dispossessed people in the Western world, the urban American blacks. "
Irvine Welsh
War
World
Words
" 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
Worry
People
Money
" 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
" You're on your own with the book. And while you are writing fiction, you're spending all this time with people who don't actually exist, which is just madness. "
Irvine Welsh
Time
People
Writing
" I make out a play list for every character and buy the records they would listen to; it helps me find their personas. What they play, where they stay, who they lay, is my matrix for character development. "
Irvine Welsh
Me
Listen
Stay
" It's really odd that I've got this kind of sullen reputation - I never saw myself that way. "
Irvine Welsh
Way
Never
Myself
" Everyone needs some kind of compelling drama in their life, basically. "
Irvine Welsh
Kind
Everyone
Drama
" 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 tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction. "
Irvine Welsh
More
Nonfiction
Writing
" It's ironic that the growth of Scottish nationalism has precipitated in the English the sort of hand-wringing the Scots have always done over who they are. "
Irvine Welsh
Done
Nationalism
Always
" I'm always watching people over a short time frame, putting them in an extreme position. Sometimes you don't see the humanity in a person because the time frame is so short and the circumstance so extreme. "
Irvine Welsh
Time
Humanity
Short
" I don't perceive an audience at all when I write a book. It's pure self-indulgence. "
Irvine Welsh
Audience
Perceive
Pure
" Filmmaking is a much more collaborative thing than literature, so you know you're going to be working with a group of people at the start. You know it's going to be a compromise. "
Irvine Welsh
Know
People
You
" Sometimes I work purely 8-12 shifts, banging stuff into the computer. Other times, my office is like a scene from a detective movie, with Post-it Notes, plans, photographs all stuck on the walls and arrows going everywhere, and it's 4 A.M. "
Irvine Welsh
Walls
Office
Plans
" Dean Owens is Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter. "
Irvine Welsh
Scotland
Dean
Haunting
" I think that every project offers an opportunity to reinvent process as well as content. "
Irvine Welsh
Think
Opportunity
Content
" In America, Miramax are using a 'New York Times' review that said 'Trainspotting' makes 'Kids' look like a 1960s episode of 'Sesame Street.' "
Irvine Welsh
New York
Street
Said
" I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are. "
Irvine Welsh
Book
Think
People
" You can't satirise darts, because it's hyper-real as it is; there's already enough over-the-top madness to it. "
Irvine Welsh
You
Darts
Enough
" People in Scotland want the parliament but don't give a toss about the elections. "
Irvine Welsh
People
Elections
Want
" 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