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 More Quotes by Irvine Welsh More Quotes From Irvine Welsh I've always got a book in my hands, a novel in my hands. The more I get into film, the more paranoid I get that I'm going to stop seeing things. Irvine Welsh film book hands Bowie's death is a very emotional thing. My generation of working-class Britain, it feels like we lost our spiritual leader, our guru. I always thought that if I was to be a hundred, somehow Bowie would be a hundred and fifteen. He'd be there to still steer me and guide me. Irvine Welsh emotional spiritual class 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 humanity sometimes people [Margaret Thatcher] was the invisible hand behind it. Without that, there'd be no Trainspotting and no Filth. Irvine Welsh invisible-hand trainspotting hands The first job of a writer is to be honest. Irvine Welsh literature jobs firsts It's only now that I realize that behaviour always has a context and precedents, it's what you do rather than what you are, although we often never recognise that context or understand what these precedents are. Irvine Welsh precedent realizing behaviour I grew up in what was not so much a familyas a genetic disaster. Irvine Welsh disaster grew grew-up don't let jesus in. AA is just one obsession replaced with another Irvine Welsh just-one obsession jesus People go to the big urban centres because they have a quality of life, a quality of intellectual inquiry in the big urban centres that you don't necessarily have in smaller, rural communities. I've got loads of friends and relatives that live there. People like living there, bringing up their kids there and all that stuff, but it'd be the death of me. I couldn't be in a small town, ten minutes I'd enjoy it, and then I'd get fed up because you're so constrained and constricted by it. Irvine Welsh community kids people 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 track strong trying I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction. Irvine Welsh literature writing fiction Every kind of book I've written has been written in a different way. There has not been any set time for writing, any set way, I haven't re-invented the process every time but I almost have. Irvine Welsh different writing book In America, we've got to get back to these base principles of what democracy is. Irvine Welsh democracy principles america I'd always liked to read, but when I picked up books I wasn't getting the same kind of excitement from them that I was from going out clubbing. I wanted to get the same kind of feel. Irvine Welsh going-out literature book Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is. Irvine Welsh literature writing culture 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 scotland reading book In America I think we need to move towards a social democracy, European-style basically, and I think that in Britain we do as well. Irvine Welsh america moving thinking Sometimes there's a snobbery among literary types that these people don't really get it, but in a lot of ways they get it more than the literati. There's a culture in the background that they understand and know. They get that deeper level. Irvine Welsh levels culture people The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are not going to necessarily prescribe to that, they'll write what they feel. Irvine Welsh writing trying people Choose life … I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin? Irvine Welsh trainspotting reason needs