Art & Creativity Quote by Irvine Welsh

Welsh is doing two things at once: flattering Scotland’s literary seriousness while refusing the tidy prestige narrative that usually comes with it. “It’s different in Scotland” lands as both local pride and a sideways jab at the cultural circuits of London, New York, the big festival-industrial complex where “literary” often means safely curated. In his telling, Scottish audiences show up to “readings” for literature itself, not just for the author-brand, the social scene, the selfie. That’s a romantic claim, but it’s also a strategic one: it positions him as an artist with a home crowd that demands craft, not just notoriety.

Then he undercuts the romanticism with a deliberately messy reality check. The “readership in general is really quite diverse” is Welsh rejecting the idea that his books belong to a single subculture (lad lit, rave culture, working-class grit) even as those labels helped market him. Diverse here isn’t PR language; it’s a reminder that Trainspotting and its descendants travel because they mix high-wire voice with street-level immediacy. People find them from different doors.

The best moment is the “cliche” he repeats anyway: readers who “don’t read any other books.” Welsh isn’t offended; he’s diagnosing his own cultural position. His work functions like a gateway drug and a destination at the same time: for some, it’s the only literature that feels like it’s speaking in their accent, at their speed, without condescension. That’s not just audience data. It’s a quiet indictment of how narrow “literature” can feel to people until a writer breaks the seal.