When you grow up in a place, you always think it’s mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you’ve got it the wrong way ’round. – Irvine Welsh
As soon as you’ve written it, you’re thinking about how it can move into different mediums. – Irvine Welsh
I’m probably a natural uncle. I can take the kids out and have fun with them and look after them, and I can be Mr. Popular. But actually having to do the grind? That stuff just doesn’t appeal at all. – Irvine Welsh
I come up with a blurb at the beginning, but the book will always be completely different by the time it’s finished. They say, ‘Where’s the book you were going to write?’ And I say, ‘Forget about it. It doesn’t exist.’ – Irvine Welsh
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
It’s really odd that I’ve got this kind of sullen reputation – I never saw myself that way. – Irvine Welsh
I just love the weather. I live on Miami Beach, which is all boutique hotels and cocktails. I do sometimes go along to smart parties in my white suit, but I wouldn’t really recognise any famous people if they were there because I’m not very good at star-spotting. – Irvine Welsh
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
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
Writing is such a good thing to do because you can’t really get bored with it. If you’re bored with writing, you’re bored with life. – Irvine Welsh