Pretty much every artist in Scotland - musician, writer, poet, actor - they're all part of a thing called the National Collective.

I like patterns in words. I'm not really interested in meaning.

I never trust songwriters who talk about what their song is about.

I've made solo records and that's all been a learning experience. I've just got better at singing and more comfortable with who I am and my voice.

I'm quite happy for my voice to be pushed up, whereas in the past I wanted it buried with the guitars, or part of the band, not like I was thinking of myself as 'the singer'.

I suppose if a band is like a gang, it is a moment in time.

I've made a living out of music since I was 19, which is something I'm really happy about.

If you want meaning, you read poetry or a novel or something, you don't read song lyrics. You're supposed to listen to them with music.

He can't make me love him when he's going to leave me.

I suppose that means you don’t want any band-aids, either, ” I said, a touch more bitterly than I’d meant to.

Introspection is not a privilege, you don't have to subscribe to it. On any occasion you can discover wisdom and oneself.

Dad bought me a toy drum one Christmas, and I eventually destroyed it. I wanted a real drum and he bought me a snare drum. Dad continued to buy me one drum after the other.

An expert is a damn fool a long way from home.

I am told, in a dream you can only get the answer to all your questions through a dream. So in my dream, I fall asleep, and I dream, in my dream, that I'm having that absolute, revealing dream.

You won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.

But just think what a boring, bread-and-milk world this would be without the boastful.

A fragment is not a fraction but a whole piece

Let him who desires to be harsh in making demands upon his debtors consider that he is God’s debtor.