In some ways, you can say that at any time in any writer's career: 'He might have run out of ideas.'

I think Scotland's got its own issues, in some ways similar to Northern Ireland with sectarianism, which has been a long-running sore. All the issues of land ownership, development resources, poverty, alcoholism and violence, all these things.

Conservatives are giving up on democracy because it's not efficient. They want an autocratic regime.

I think that the Brexit negotiations have to be a big thing that determines the democratic fight-back and galvanizes democratic Europe again against this rising tide of nationalism.

You're never going to get beyond other people's preconceptions of what you are and what you're about.

[Ecstasy] had its flaws, but again it was shot on a low budget, and they did well. It's not in the same league as Filth.

How did it make you feel?