I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.
Middle-class people worry a lot about money. They worry a lot about job security, and they do a lot of nine-to-five stuff.
Words should have the power to inform and to move, not the power to send people scurrying away. But if you attach that much emotional energy to a word, it gives people the power to hurt each other.
I'm the worst employee in the world. I'll cheat and steal time and resources from my employer, although I'll con everybody into believing I'm essential to the operation.
The '90s was a decade of mundane market-consumer nothingness where there was nothing coming up from the streets; you just had someone in an office deciding what was cool.
When you grow up in a place, you always think it's mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you've got it the wrong way 'round.
You can't satirise darts, because it's hyper-real as it is; there's already enough over-the-top madness to it.
I'm probably a natural uncle. I can take the kids out and have fun with them and look after them, and I can be Mr. Popular. But actually having to do the grind? That stuff just doesn't appeal at all.
Underground people pay a desperate toll finding out things nobody else has discovered yet. We run around like headless chickens looking for the next cultural fix to spiral around in before it gets appropriated somewhere else and becomes something it never was. There's this sort of one-upmanship in the underground.
Boxing gives you such a good workout, although I've stopped sparring. When your hand speed goes, you're going to get caught, and you can't afford to take cumulative smacks on the chops when you're a writer.
In my flat in Chicago, I've got this big room with an office in the corner and a balcony so I can watch people go by.
Everyone needs some kind of compelling drama in their life, basically.
Television has become the government, priest, psychotherapist - the legitimiser of our egos.
Dean Owens is Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter.
I enjoy the freedom of the blank page.
We have to give feminism a shot. Out of sheer self preservation, we have to stand aside and let women run the show.
The first job of a writer is to be honest.
I just write the stuff I want to at the time, what feels right for me.
Rebellion is always going to fascinate, as it's always packaged in a very safe way.
I make out a play list for every character and buy the records they would listen to; it helps me find their personas. What they play, where they stay, who they lay, is my matrix for character development.
