When I started off with Trainspotting, it was the way the characters came to me. That's how they sounded to me. It seemed pretentious to sound any other way. I wasn't making any kind of political statement.

He generally ignores the traditional conventions of literary Scots used for example by Allan Ramsay Robert Fergusson Robert Burns Robert Louis Stevenson and James Orr. Trainspotting Marabou Filth and Ecstasy. Welsh has directed several short films for bands.

He has also written plays screenplays and directed several short films. Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist playwright and short story writer.