I think there is a natural thing that you feel when you've written something taboo because you just don't want to expose the people you're close to.

I don't think that the Scots are happy to drift into Britain becoming the poorest of the poor, sub-American 51st state.

In America I think we need to move towards a social democracy, European-style basically, and I think that in Britain we do as well.

The first of the Trainspotting crew to die. Out of the five of them like, Begbie, Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and [Margaret] Thatcher. Who'd have thunk she'd have been the first to go? She was the invisible author of the book, really. She created the conditions and the hubris whereby that whole culture flourished.

There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a London society, a highbrow literature celebrity society.

I think there is a natural thing that you feel when you've written something taboo because you just don't want to expose the people you're close to.

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.