Get a job...

"I think writing is a very selfish, obsessive game. I think writers have to be very single minded about their own stuff, and the whole concept of it being taught doesn’t actually really sit that comfortable with me, you know what I mean? I think a lot of these programs have emerged now and I don’t think you should let anybody under thirty on them. I think for older people they work, but for younger people I keep saying 'Just get a job,' or 'If you want to be a writer, get a job and have something to write about or do a course that’s going to give you some knowledge rather than writing skills,' like...

"People like Will Self and Chuck Palahniuk, they’re just writers, nobody has to tell them or show them how to do creative writing. They’ll just batter away at it until they find their creative voice, until they find something that works for them and then they’ll go off with it, you know...

"...it’s like Ray Bradbury said, 'In the writing game you jump off a cliff and then you construct your wings on the way down and you just hope you get a good working pair before you hit the ground.' And I think that’s the way it is, you’re just trying to see what works every time you’re doing it."

Irvine Welsh - intervew with Bookslut (2006)