There's all this stuff that is happening in Edinburgh now, it's a sad attempt to create an Edinburgh society, similar to a London society, a highbrow literature celebrity society.

I left Edinburgh to follow the London punk scene in 1978, singing and playing guitar in various bands. My income was sporadic, so I did anything to eke out some kind of subsistence - laying down slabs, working as a kitchen porter.

The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are not going to necessarily prescribe to that, they'll write what they feel.

Politicians are so... detested; they don't actually walk amongst people now.

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.

Sitting in the brightly lit library, surrounded by books, in total silence, that was ma personal zenith.