I didn't have any concept of Trainspotting being published. It was a selfish act. I did it for myself.

Once you've been with each other in a primal, shagging state, it's hard to talk about the weather.

Some people are easier to love when you don't have to be around them.

Everything in the street today seems soft focus.

His eyes are wild, psychotic slits that bat-dance in your soul looking for good things to crush or bad elements to identify with.

don't let jesus in. AA is just one obsession replaced with another

The inspiration can come in such small ways that if you sit there just waiting for the big epiphany you'll sit there for the rest of your life.

I'm not running away, I'm moving on.

I wanted to capture the excitement of house music, almost like a four-four beat, and the best way to do that was to use a language that was rhythmic and performative.

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.

You can't lie to your soul.

The one thing that's missing to create a fundamental shift in work capacity: courage. Leadership courage.

. . . if money is a science, then it is a dark science, darker than alchemy. It split away from Natural Philosophy millennia ago, and has gone on developing ever since, by its own rules.

Words are fossilized butterfly wings, pretty to look at sometimes, but only good for Museums.I want to miserably burn down the Museums.

nothing can block your light. what's for you will be yours even when shade is thrown

It is most important to allow the brain the full measure of sleep which is required to restore it; for sleep is to a man's whole nature what winding up is to a clock.

History is a tragegy, not a morality tale.

When television came along, I'd already done more than 10 years of radio work and I thought everyone would want me. I sat around waiting for the phone to ring - and it didn't.

This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

You think you're enlightened. But as my lama said, when you realize the intrinsic nature of the mind, then you start to meditate. It's not the end, it's the beginning.