Irvine Welsh quotes

Irvine Welsh is a Scottish novelist and playwright, best known for his gritty portrayal of contemporary Scottish life. His most famous work, "Trainspotting," was adapted into a highly influential film. He has earned acclaim for his distinctive narrative voice and exploration of social issues. Here are 73 of his quotes:

That's all very well as an abstract moral principle, Avril, a coffee-table theoretical construct, but there's no denying the sheer gratuitous pleasure to be derived from seeing members of the ruling class in pain and torment.

Irvine Welsh

I enjoy the freedom of the blank page.

Irvine Welsh

Bad luck is usually transmitted by close proximity to habitual sufferers.

Irvine Welsh

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

I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

Irvine Welsh

What worries me is the professionalism of everything.

Irvine Welsh

How many shots does it take before the concept ay choice becomes obsolete?

Irvine Welsh

Ah wonder if anybody this side of the Atlantic has ever bought a baseball bat with playing baseball in mind.

Irvine Welsh

Rents once sais, thirs nothin like a darker skin tone tae increase the vigilance ay the police n the magistrates: too right.

Irvine Welsh

The rhetorical question, the stock-in-trade weapon ay burds and psychos.

Irvine Welsh

Some people are easier to love when you don't have to be around them.

Irvine Welsh

Everything in the street today seems soft focus.

Irvine Welsh

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.

Irvine Welsh

You can't just have stuff that is free and escapist, you have to have stuff that is confrontational as well. You need stuff that is mystical but you need the realism too.

Irvine Welsh

Ah suppose man, ah'm too much ay a perfectionist, ken? It's likesay, if things go a bit dodgy, ah jist cannae be bothered, y'know?

Irvine Welsh

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 involved.

Irvine Welsh

You can't lie to your soul.

Irvine Welsh

When two people were in love you had to leave them to it. Especially when you weren't in love and wished that you were. That could embarrass. That could hurt.

Irvine Welsh

Iggy Pop looks right at me as he sings the line: 'America takes drugs in psychic defence'; only he changes 'America' to 'Scatlin', and defines us mair accurately in a single sentence than all the others have ever done.

Irvine Welsh

Ah thought that every cunt over twenty was a toss an no worth speakin tae, until ah hit twenty. The mair ah see, the mair ah think ah wis right. After that it's aw ugly compromise, aw timid surrender, progressively until death.

Irvine Welsh

Ah hate cunts like that. Cunts like Begbie. Cunts that are intae basebaw-batting every fucker that's different; pakis, poofs, n what huv ye. Fuckin failures in a country ay failures. It's nae good blamin it oan the English fir colonising us. Ah don't hate the English. They're just wankers. We are colonised by wankers. We can't even pick a decent, vibrant, healthy culture to be colonised by. No. We're ruled by effete arseholes. What does that make us? The lowest of the fuckin low, tha's what, the scum of the earth. The most wretched, servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat intae creation. Ah don't hate the English. They just git oan wi the shite thuv goat. Ah hate the Scots.

Irvine Welsh

By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.

Irvine Welsh