When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

If you're going to do something that's going to cause offence to people, you're always going to get a reaction.

You know what it's like: you don't want to read your old books again. All you can see are the flaws, what you would do differently.

I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know?

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.

I'm always watching people over a short time frame, putting them in an extreme position. Sometimes you don't see the humanity in a person because the time frame is so short and the circumstance so extreme.