Interview with James Kelman

Had the pleasure of meeting the writer James Kelman a few months ago and 3:AM are now running the resulting occasionally prickly interview. It's hard to avoid hyperbole but for me the man's work is pretty much unsurpassed amongst contemporary writers and a fiery antidote to the bourgeois horseshit the literary establishment largely peddles.

"The crucial factor is the ability to earn a living, this is what is taken from writers who work on/from the margins. Your question suggests it is a fair go, an even fight, or some such nonsense. It isn’t. One side has power and authority and the other doesn’t. One has the power to stop the other from earning a living. It is better to be acknowledged as a writer than have to continue proving it all the time."