When I realised I could, I did. What I mean is that it never seemed like a possibility. Writers were foreign and rich and dead. It wasn't until discovering James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway, Tom Leonard, Alan Bissett and many other Scottish writers that I realised someone from where I'm from had something worth saying. Until then, and it sounds naive now, writing was about as impossible as becoming an astronaut or playing for Real Madrid. But that's a good thing, because it gave me (and still does give me) a hunger. I think writers need adversity, they need something to fight against - oppression, doubters, even their own naivetey - something to write against.