“It was around the summer of 1982 when the drug problem really impacted. It becam…” — Irvine Welsh

When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

It's where you come from that's the strange, exotic, quirky, mad place.

When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.

There is a kind of mysticism to writing.