Irvine Welsh Quotes

I'm always writing. It's kind of a curse: You never stop. But I need isolation to write. So the real meat of the material comes when I'm off the road.

Twice a year, I take myself off to a self-imposed 'writer's retreat', staying at a small inn or on a friend's farm, where I am all alone and do nothing other than write.

The most difficult thing about painting is the self-discipline. When I finish a job, I give myself a few days, but then I have to discipline myself quite fiercely if I want to do some painting that's worthwhile. Otherwise, you're just doodling. It's much easier when you're just told what you have to do.

Composing demands a degree of isolation.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

We lived in Atlanta for a couple of years, and had a lot of fun, but my best work happens when I isolate myself. It's all about turning inward.

Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

Some degree of withdrawal serves to nurture man's creative powers. The artist and the scientist bring out of the dark void, like the mysterious universe itself, the unique, the strange, the unexpected. Numerous observers have testified upon the loneliness of the process.

It seems to me that today if the artist wishes to be serious... he must once more sink himself in solitude.

Nothing will change the fact that I cannot produce the least thing without absolute solitude.

It takes isolation and solitude for me to write.

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block.

Just keep thinking about the good side of ADD - the creativity and the originality it can stimulate.

I try to stay focused on my creativity.

I always have music playing in my studio when I design. It really gets me in the mood and allows me to focus.

Some writers like to work in other places like coffee shops, but I can't - I'd end up people-watching. And if I were at a bookstore, I'd be reading. Sometimes I have some music on, but usually I like it quiet.

I think we've all been in the middle of doing something we cared about, when someone coming in the room and saying 'hello' was annoying. I personally can understand that, as someone who tries to create.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative. Without being creative I'd be dead.

I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you're ready.

Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is asleep.

I write best late at night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed. There's something magical about that late night silence that appeals to me.

When I write I find a quiet place.

I'm from the middle of nowhere in Somerset, and if I have too much stimulus or chaos, then I tend to not be as creative.

Although I've made notes for things and even written synopses sitting in trains or on park benches, for the complete composition of things I need absolute solitude, preferably an empty house.

I need quiet and solitude to work. Darkness is best. If I am wide awake, I can't write.