“
You can't lie to your soul.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... Choose DSY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
I'm not running away, I'm moving on.
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
Some people are easier to love when you don't have to be around them.
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
Love does not exist, it's like religion, the state wants you to believe in that kind of crap so they can control you, and f**k your head up.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
We start off with high hopes, then we bottle it. We realise that we’re all going to die, without really finding out the big answers. We develop all those long-winded ideas which just interpret the reality of our lives in different ways, without really extending our body of worthwhile knowledge, about the big things, the real things. Basically, we live a short disappointing life; and then we die. We fill up our lives with shite, things like careers and relationships to delude ourselves that it isn’t all totally pointless.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
You were what you were and you are what you are. Fuck that regrets bullshit.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
Mates are a waste of fucking time. They are always ready to drag you down tae their level of social, sexual and intellectual mediocrity.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache and conviction...no, it's because they say exactly what you want to hear, at that point in time.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
I was anti-everything and everyone. I didn't want people around me. This aversion was not some big crippling anxiety; merely a mature recognition of my own psychological vulnerability and my lack of suitability as a companion. Thoughts jostled for space in my crowded brain as i struggled to give them some order which might serve to motivate my listless life.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Acid House)
“
Now there is apparently a causal link between heroin addiction and vegetarianism.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
This is what being alive's all about, all those fucked up feelings. You've got to have them; when you stop, watch out.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Acid House)
“
You fucking knew that fucking cunt would fuck some cunt.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
His eyes are wild, psychotic slits that bat-dance in your soul looking for good things to crush or bad elements to identify with.
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
Sometimes ah think that people become junkies just because they subconsciously crave a wee bit ay silence.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not fucking stupid. At least, we're not that fucking stupid.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Everything in the street today seems soft focus.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Thir must be less tae life than this
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
When two people were in love you had to leave them to it. Especially when you weren't in love and wished that you were. That could embarrass. That could hurt.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Ecstasy)
“
Aye Oedipus, yir a complex fucker right enough
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Acid House)
“
You can only live in the world you ken. The rest is just wishful thinking or paranoia.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
The train was nearly twenty minutes late, an excellent performance by British Rail standards.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
take your best orgasm, multiply the feeling by twenty, and you're still fuckin miles off the pace
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
I'm more of a warrior than you'll ever be. I believe in the class war. I believe in the battle of the sexes. I believe in my tribe. I believe in the righteous, intelligent clued-up section of the working classes against the brain-dead moronic masses as well as the mediocre, soulless bourgeoisie.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
I love doubt in a woman. It's nearly as sexy as determination.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
The fact that you use the term "cunt" in the same breath as "sexist", shows that you display the same muddled, fucked-up thinking oan this issue as you do oan everything else.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Now, for the first time, he's seeing that there really is a way out of this, and it's all so simple. You don't have to run away. You just meet somebody special and step sideways into a parallel universe.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
It's easy tae be philosophical when some other cunt's got shite fir blood.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
... Basically, we live a short, disappointing life; and then we die. We fill up oor lives wi shite, things like careers and relationships tae delude oorsels that it isnae aw totally pointless.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
don't let jesus in. AA is just one obsession replaced with another
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs)
“
It's only now that I realize that behaviour always has a context and precedents, it's what you do rather than what you are, although we often never recognise that context or understand what these precedents are.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Marabou Stork Nightmares)
“
I like the idea of a black sun; like a black hole in space, sucking everything into darkness, where we came from and where we're heading
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Blade Artist (Mark Renton, #4))
“
Fuckin failures in a country of failures. Its nae good blamin it oan the English fir colonising us. Ah don't hate the English. They're just wankers. We are colonised by wankers. We can't even pick a decent, vibrant healthy society to be colonised by. No..we are ruled by effete arseholes. What does that make us? The lowest of the low, the scum of the earth. The most wretched servile, miserable, pathetic trash that was ever shat intae creation. Ah don't hate the English. They just git oan wis the shite thev got. Ah hate the Scots.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
You just want tae fuck up on drugs so that everyone'll think how deep and fucking complex you are. It's pathetic, and fucking boring.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
But even Es and cocaine, over the years they blow holes in your brain, rob you of your memories, your past. Which is fair enough, convenient even.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
Iggy Pop looks right at me as he sings the line: 'America takes drugs in psychic defence'; only he changes 'America' to 'Scatlin', and defines us mair accurately in a single sentence than all the others have ever done.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
It’s all okay, it’s all beautiful; but ah fear that this internal sea is gaunnae subside soon, leaving this poisonous shite washed up, stranded up in ma body.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
We wait and think and doubt and hate. How does it make you feel? The overwhelming feeling is rage. We hate ourself for being unable to be other than what we are. Unable to be better. We feel rage. The feelings must be followed. It doesn't matter whether you're an ideologue or a sensualist, you follow the stimuli thinking that they're your signposts to the promised land. But they are nothing of the kind. What they are is rocks to navigate the past, each on your brush against, ripping you a little more open and they are always more on the horizon. But you can't face up to the that, so you force yourself to believe the bullshit of those you instinctively know are liars and you repeat those lies to yourself and to others, hoping that by repeating them often and fervently enough you'll attain the godlike status we accord those who tell the lies most frequently and most passionately. But you never do, and even if you could, you wouldn't value it, you'd realise that nobody believes in heroes any more. We know that they only want to sell us something we don't really want and keep from us what we really do need. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we're getting in touch with our condition at last. It's horrible how we always die alone, but no worse than living alone.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
When I get home I take some sleeping pills and within what seemed like half an hour of unconsciousness it was Monday morning again.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Ah fuckin hate the way some American cunts call lassies cunts. Fuckin offensive, that shite.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Dead Men's Trousers)
“
He emphasised basic truths: you are not dying yet, you have to live your life until you are. Underpinning them was the belief that the grim reality of impending death can be talked away by trying to invest in the present reality of life. I didn’t believe that at the time, but now I do. By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Even as I'm shoveling up my hooter, I realize the sad truth. Coke bores me, It bores us all. We're jaded cunts, in a scene we hate, a city we hate, pretending that we're at the center of the universe, trashing ourselves with crap drugs to stave off the feeling that real life is happening somewhere else, aware that all we're doing is feeding that paranoia and disenchantment, yet somehow we're too apathetic to stop. Cause, sadly, there's nothing else of interest to stop for.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
They mean well, and they mean well tae me, but there's nae way under the sun that they can
appreciate what ah feel, what ah need.
Protect me from those who wish tae help us.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
But ah cannae even endorse these sentiments as they are at best peripheral tae the moment.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
With the gift of faith, we move on.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
Are you asking me or telling me?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
How did it make you feel?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Life is a dynamic rather than a static process, and when we don't change it kills us. It's not running away, it's moving on.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Glue)
“
On the issue of drugs, we wir classical liberals, vehemently opposed tae state intervention in any form.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
It wis like auld times, but in a sense that only served tae remind us ay how much things hud changed.
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
The Victim was a chronic fuck-up. People Like her always seemed to hang out with The Poisonous Cunt. In turn, she kept their self-esteem low and made sure that they stayed in psychic immiseration. She was a curator of dead souls.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Ecstasy)
“
Society invents a spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whae's behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah ken aw the pros and cons, know that ah'm gaunnae huv a short life, am ah sound mind, ectetera, ectetera, but still want tae use smack? They won't let ye dae it. They won't let ye dae it, because it's seen as a sign ay thir ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.
Well, ah choose no tae choose life. If the cunts cannae handle that, it's thair fuckin problem. As Harry Launder sais, ah jist intend tae keep right on to the end of the road...
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
Ah realise now thit death is usually a process, rather than an
event. People generally die by degrees, incrementally. They rot away slowly in homes and hoespitals,
or places like this.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
He notes the depressing haste with which the successful, in the sexual sphere as in all others, segment themselves from the failures.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
Living like this is a full-time business.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
But here, just at this point: this is limbo. There is the sense that if you stay at this point for too long, stop at this point of oblivion for a certain amount of time, you will just cease to exist. And we cannot move.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Gillman smiles, in the cold manner of an assassin. It's like looking in the mirror.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
I reach into my bag and I pull out my claw hammer.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
I pay more tax registered in Holland than I would in the USA, but better gieing to the Dutch to build dams than the Yanks to build bombs.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Dead Men's Trousers)
“
—Everybody talks about being a writer, angel. If every novel conceived on a bar stool made it into print, there would not be one tree left standing on God’s green Earth.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins: A Novel)
“
-Fiona, this is my mate, Frank Begbie. Or Franco. Or Beggars. Or the Beggar Boy. Or the Generalissmo. Or Psychotic Bullying Prick.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
Ah walk doon Hammersmith Broadway, London seeming strange and alien, after only a three-month absence, as familiar places do when you’ve been away. It’s as if everything is a copy of what you knew before, similar, yet somehow lacking in its usual qualities, a bit like the wey things are in a dream. They say you have to live in a place to know it, but you have to come fresh tae really see it.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
It was the books I started reading.
It was the music I started listening to. It was the television I started watching.
I found myself thinking again. I tried to stop because it was only causing pain.
I couldn't.
Wen all this is in your head it has to come out into your life. If it doesn't, you get crushed. I'm not going to get crushed.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Ecstasy)
“
Bruce, you’re an ugly and silly old man. You’re very possibly an alcoholic and God knows what else. You’re the type of sad case who preys on vulnerable, weak and stupid women in order to boost his own shattered ego. You’re a mess. You’ve gone wrong somewhere pal.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Schopenhauer was right: Life has to be about disillusionment stumbling inexorably towards the totally fucked.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
They mean well, and they mean well tae me, but there's nae way under the sun that they can appreciate what ah feel, what ah need.
Protect me from those who wish tae help us.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
Ah suppose man, ah'm too much ay a perfectionist, ken? It's likesay, if things go a bit dodgy, ah jist cannae be bothered, y'know.
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
The town is mobbed out with Saturday shoppers looking for Christmas bargains. You can almost breathe in the raw greed which hangs in the air like vapour. As the late afternoon darkness falls, the lights look tacky and sinister.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
The pit of melancholy was a bottomless one, and he was descending fast, falling further away from the good times. Such times often seemed tantalisingly within reach; he could see them, going on all around him. His mind was like a cruel prison, giving his captive soul a sight of freedom, but no more.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
no matter how early you rise or how late you turn in, you never see that point where light begins or the first bruise of darkness bleeds in under its fragile skin; the beauty, and the scary, unfathomable wisdom of transition.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton Series Book 1))
“
Ah don't hate the English. They're just wankers. We are colonised by wankers. We can't even pick a decent, vibrant, healthy culture to be colonised by. No. We're ruled by effete arseholes. What does that make us?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
It's hard to maintain both smack and crack habbits and remember to keep up mobile-phone payments.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
-The renegade robots are now long dead, the metal ones rusted, the human ones bled.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Acid House)
“
Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
The dead man is on the trolley and the woman collapses across his chest. That's what the ghouls want a shufti at, like at that Princess Diana's funeral, they want to scrutinise those who really knew her, to drink the misery out of their faces.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Analysing novels meant ripping oot their soul and it destroyed my enjoyment of them. Ah couldnae allow masel tae be trained tae thing that way. Only by refusing tae study literature was ah able tae maintain ma passion for it.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
writing about drugs is like that though, isn't it? You can just tell when someone is writing about drugs and they've never really done them. It screams out at you. That's something where I believe you have to have been there to really get it, y'know?
”
”
Irvine Welsh
“
It was Begbie who ensured he could never return. He had done what he wanted to do. He could now never go back to Leith, to Edinburgh, even to Scotland, ever again. There, he could not be anything other than he was. Now, free from them all, for good, he could be what he wanted to be. He'd stand or fall alone. This thought both terrified and excited him as he contemplated life in Amsterdam.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
So she's wipin spunk offay her face, gaun aw fuckin panicky, `Whae wis that, wis that ma dad?`
`Fuckin durty pervert sneakin up oan cunts like that,` ah goes.
So she goes aw that fuckin ice-cauld, frigid, huffey wey, but fuck her, ye need a wee bit ay fuckin romance at Christmas.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
Renton looks at her and sees her pain and anger. It cuts him
up. It confuses him. Kelly has a great sense of humour. What's wrong with her? The knee–jerk
thought: Wrong time of the' month is forming in his head when he looks about and picks up the
intonations of the laughter around the bar. It's not funny laughter.
This is lynch mob laughter.
How was ah tae know, he thinks. How the fuck was ah tae know?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
This internal sea. The problem is that this beautiful ocean carries with it loads ay poisonous flotsam and jetsam … that poison is diluted by the sea, but once the ocean rolls out, it leaves the shite behind, inside ma body. It takes as well as gives, it washes away ma endorphins, ma pain resistance centres; they take a long time tae come back.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Renton asks the cop: ‘But what did ye say tae get him tae come back inside?’ The officer replies: ‘I just told him that no matter how bad it all seemed right now, it’s just part and parcel of being young. That it gets easier.’ ‘Does it?’ Renton asks, and the policeman shakes his head: ‘Does it fuck; it gets bleeding worse. All that happens is that the expectations you have of life fall. You just get used to all the shit.’ But what if you can’t get used to it? The officer shrugs: ‘Well, that window’s still gonna be there.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1))
“
Ye see, Rab, it's due to the way we feel about our arseholes. We now believe, as a species, if our soul is located anywhere in our bodies, it's up our arses. That's where it all goes. It makes sense. That's why we're obsessed with anal jokes, anal sex, anal hobbies...the arsehole - not the brain, not space - is the last frontier. That's what makes us revolutionaries.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
I'm more of a warrior than you'll ever be. I believe in the class war. I believe in the battle of the sexes. I believe in my tribe. I believe in the righteous, intelligent clued-up section of the working classes against the brain-dead moronic masses as well as the mediocre, soulless bourgeoisie. I believe in punk rock. In northern soul. In acid house. In mod. In rock and roll. I also believe in pre commercial righteous, rap and hip hop. That's my manifesto.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
Since he was sixteen, he had been continuously sexually active, either with a girlfriend or through a series of casual flings. From the point of someone like Kibby, he considered, he would be regarded as highly succesful with women.
But the real problem is relationships, which fucking social retards like Kibby can't grasp, because they're just so obsessed with getting their hole.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs)
“
A standing prick hath no conscience. And if that standing prick is attached to Bruce Robertson then it hath less than no conscience. You can't afford a conscience in this life, that has become a luxury for the rich and a social ball and chain for the rest of us. Even if I wanted one, which I certainly do not, I wouldn't have the faintest idea as how to go about getting one.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Can you taste it Bruce? Can you taste the filth, the dirt, the oily blackness of that fossil fuel in our mouth as you choke and gag and spit it out? Do you still hear his voice in your head urging you to eat? Eat, eat eat. Your mother's cries. Do you hear them? You should be Bruce. Because I know that it's never left you alone. Now you can eat what you want to eat. For me, for you, for all the others. Now you can consume to your heart's content or your soul's destruction, whichever comes first. So eat.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
”
”
John Hodge (Trainspotting: A Screenplay (Based on the Novel by Irvine Welsh))
“
...we need tits and arse because they have got to be available to us; to be pawed, fucked, wanked over. Because we’re men? No. Because we’re consumers. Because those are things we like, things we intrinsically feel or have been conned into believing will give us value, release satisfaction. We value them so we need to at least have the illusion of their availability. For tits and arse read coke, crisps, speedboats, cars, houses, computers, designer labels, replica shirts. That’s why advertising and pornography are similar; they sell the illusion of availability and the non-consequence of consumption.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
He's going on and on, and I can't be bothered. I just can't be fuckin well arsed saying something like: Solaris shites all over 2001, and then listening to him arguing vehemently against it. Or, alternatively, waiting for him to say it, and then being expected to argue engingly, as if to agree, even if we do, is a sign that we're effete proofs. I can't be bothered with it and I can't even be bothered to tell him that I can'be be bothered.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Porno (Mark Renton, #3))
“
All I can think about is that boy’s skull, bashed in, the way his head was caved in and how it wasn’t like a heid at all, just like a broken silly puppet face, about how when you destroy something, when you brutalise it, it always looks warped and disfigured and slightly unreal and unhuman and that’s what makes it easier for you to go on brutalising it, go on fucking it and hurting it and mashing until you’ve destroyed it completely, proving that destruction is natural in the human spirit, that nature has devices to enable us to destroy, to make it easier for us; a way of making righteous people who want to act do things without the fear of consequence, a way of making us less than human, as we break the laws . . .
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Filth)
“
Thing is, as ye git aulder, this character-deficiency gig becomes mair sapping. Thir wis a time ah used tae say tae aw the teachers, bosses, dole punters, poll-tax guys, magistrates, when they telt me ah was deficient:'Hi, cool it, gadge, ah'm jist me, jist intae a different sort ay gig fae youse but, ken?' Now though, ah've goat tae concede thit mibee they cats had it sussed. Ye take a healthier slapping the aulder ye git. The blows hit hame mair. It's like yon Mike Tyson boy at the boxing, ken?
Every time ye git it thegither tae make a comeback, thir's jist a wee bit mair missin. So ye fuck up again. Yip, ah'm jist no a gadge cut oot fir modern life n that's aw thir is tae it, man. Sometimes the gig goes smooth, then ah jist pure panic n it's back tae the auld weys. What kin ah dae?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)
“
Society invents a spurious convoluted logic tea absorb and change people whae's behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah ken all the pros and cons, know that ah'm gaunnae huv a short life, am ay sound mind etcetera etcetera, but still want tae use smack? They won't let ye dae it. They won't let ye dae it, because it's seen as a sign ay thir ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yourself in a home, a total fucking embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
This is from "Marabou Stork Nightmares".
Bernard's Poem:
Did you see her on the telly the other day
good family entertainment the tabloids say
But when you're backstage
at your new faeces audition
you hear the same old shite of your own selfish volition
She was never a singer
a comic or a dancer
I cant say I was sad
when I found out she had cancer
Great Britain's earthy northern
comedy queen
takes the rand, understand
from the racist Boer regime
So now her cells are fucked
and thats just tough titty
I remember her act
that I caught back in Sun City
She went on and on about
'them from the trees
with different skull shapes
from the likes of you and me'
Her Neo-Nazi spell
it left me fucking numb
the Boers lapped it up with zeal
so did the British ex-pat scum
But what goes round
comes round they say
so welcome to another dose
of chemotherapy
And for my part
it's time to be upfront
so fuck off and die
you carcinogenic cunt.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Marabou Stork Nightmares)
“
Society invents a spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whae's behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah ken aw the pros and cons, know that ah'm gaunnae huv a short life, am ah sound mind, etcetera, etcetera, but still want tae use smack? They won't let ye dae it. They won't let ye dae it, because it's seen as a sign ay thir ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whut they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
Eroinden söz ederken kendimi şaşırtıcı ölçüde iyi, sakin ve berrak hissediyordum.
"Tam olarak bilmiyorum, Tom, bilmiyorum. Bi şekilde her şeyi daha gerçekçi kılıyor. Hayat sıkıcı ve anlamsız. Büyük umutlarla başlıyoruz, sonra çuvallıyoruz. Hepimiz bi gün büyük sorulara cevap bulmadan öleceğimizi keşfederiz. Hayatımızın gerçeğini farklı biçimlerde yorumlayacak dolambaçlı düşünceler geliştiririz, bedenimizle büyük şeylere, gerçek şeylere dair kayda değer bi bilgiye uzanmaksızın. Aslında, kısa ve hayal kırıklıklarıyla dolu bi hayat yaşar, sonra da ölürüz. Kendimizi her şeyin tamamen anlamdan yoksun olmadığına inandırmak için hayatlarımızı bokla doldururuz; kariyerle, ilişkiyle falan. Eroin dürüst bir uyuşturucudur, çünkü bu yanılsamaları sıyırıp atar. Eroin çaktığında iyiysen, kendini ölümsüz hissedersin. Kötüysen zaten var olan sıkıntıyı artırır. Tek dürüst uyuşturucudur. Bilincini değiştirmez. Bi anda çarpar ve gevşetir. Ondan sonra dünyanın sefaletini olduğu gibi görür, kendini buna karşı duyarsızlaştıramazsın.
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2))
“
--Thing is though, Spud, whin yir intae skag, that's it. That's aw yuv goat tae worry aboot. Ken Billy, ma brar, likes? He's jist signed up tae go back intae the fuckin army. He's gaun tae fucking Belfast, the stupid cunt. Ah always knew that the fucker wis tapped. Fuckin imperialist lackey. Ken whit the daft cunt turned roond n sais tae us? He goes: Ah cannae fuckin stick civvy street. Bein in the army, it's like being a junky. The only difference is thit ye dinnae git shot at sae often bein a junky. Besides, it's usually you that does the shootin.
--That, eh, likesay, seems a bit eh, fucked up like man. Ken?
--Naw but, listen the now. You jist think aboot it. In the army they dae everything fir they daft cunts. Feed thum, gie the cunts cheap bevvy in scabby camp clubs tae keep thum fae gaun intae toon n lowerin the fuckin tone, upsetting the locals n that. Whin they git intae civvy street, thuv goat tae dae it aw fir thumsells.
--Yeah, but likesay, it's different though, cause . . . Spud tries to cut in, but Renton is in full flight. A bottle in the face is the only thing that could shut him up at this point; even then only for a few seconds.
--Uh, uh . . . wait a minute, mate. Hear us oot. Listen tae whit ah've goat tae say here . . . what the fuck wis ah sayin . . . aye! Right. Whin yir oan junk, aw ye worry aboot is scorin. Oaf the gear, ye worry aboot loads ay things. Nae money, cannae git pished. Goat money, drinkin too much. Cannae git a burd, nae chance ay a ride. Git a burd, too much hassle, cannae breathe withoot her gittin oan yir case. Either that, or ye blow it, and feel aw guilty. Ye worry aboot bills, food, bailiffs, these Jambo Nazi scum beatin us, aw the things that ye couldnae gie a fuck aboot whin yuv goat a real junk habit. Yuv just goat one thing tae worry aboot. The simplicity ay it aw. Ken whit ah mean?
”
”
Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting)