Irvine Welsh Quotes

What's lucky about my career in general is that I stumbled into what every writer most wants. Not repeating myself and doing strange things has become my trademark.

Not to be boxed in, to be able to transcend boundaries: for an artist, it's essential.

Genius is the capacity for productive reaction against one's training.

For a writer, you definitely do not want to be in the mainstream. You want to be on the edge because that's where the vantage point is. That's where you can see.

Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.

No, because I don't want to hear what's hot and feel I have to copy it. I'll just make up my own thing.

I'm so proud to be on a Kate Bush record; she's always marched to the beat of her own drum.

To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

I think the idea of creating a character from scratch, one that has not been done in a novel or an existing story, is immensely exciting, terrifying and ultimately rewarding.

I'm constantly trying to be as original as I can.

There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.

Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors.

I was lucky I went to school in London because the tutors could see what to do. I knew I wanted to do something different. Why would I want to do what other people were already doing, because they would always do it better? I always wanted to work around the body. So throughout my college years, my work was quite free.

There are no rules in art.

The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. And I really believe that. And what I try to teach young people, or anybody in any creative field, is that every idea should seemingly be outrageous.

There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.

I wrote my own verses. Anything I did, I wrote myself.

Scientists who play by someone else's rules don't have much chance of making discoveries.

My early experiences in animation taught me that following someone else is not a great idea.

If I've got a script, you think I'll go to Hollywood to get money? I was bored with the people around me, so I just created my own movie, my own character. I'm the story of my own movie, and you know what? My movie is going to be better.

Everything I've performed has been from my own head.

I am not bothered with whether my characters are conventional or not. Because I am not in this for the designer labels and the autographs.

I wanna make weird stuff.

A writer is an artist. They're creating things out of thin air.