Trainspotting is about the drug addiction of 20-something Mark Renton and his group of friends.
1- “Heroin had robbed Renton of his sex drive, but now it returned with a vengeance. And as the impotence of those days faded into memory, grim desperation took hold of his sex-crazed mind. His post-junk libido, fuelled by alcohol and amphetamine, taunted him remorselessly with his own unsatisfied desire.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
2- “I really am the luckiest guy in the world. Several years of addiction right in the middle of an epidemic, surrounded by the living dead. But not me. I’m negative. It’s official. And once the pain goes away, that’s when the real battle starts. Depression, boredom… you feel so fucking low, you want to fucking top yourself.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
3- “If you ask me we’re heterosexual by default, not by decision. It’s just a question of who you fancy. It’s all about aesthetics and it’s fuck all to do with morality.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
4- “Swanney taught us to adore and respect the national health service. For it was the source of much of our gear. We stole drugs. We stole prescriptions or bought them, sold them, swapped them, forged them, photocopied them. Or traded drugs with cancer victims, alcoholics, old-age pensioners, AIDS patients, epileptics, and bored housewives.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
5- “Choose your future. Choose life… but why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needsreasons when you’ve got heroin?” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
6- “I fantasize about a massive pristine convenience. Brilliant gold taps, virginal white marble, a seat carved from ebony, a cistern full of Chanel no.5, and a flunky handing me pieces of raw silk toilet roll. But under the circumstances I’ll settle for anywhere.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
7- “We took morphine, diamorphine, cyclizine, codeine, temazepam, nitrazepam, phenobarbitone, sodium amytal, dextropropoxyphene, methadone, nalbuphine, pethidine, pentazocine, buprenorphine, dextromoramide, chlormethiazole. The streets are awash with drugs you can have for unhappiness and pain, and we took them all.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
8- “1,000 years from now there will be no guys and no girls, just wankers. Sounds great to me.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
9- “One bottle of Valium, which I’ve already procured from my mother, who is, in her own domestic and socially acceptable way also a drug addict.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
10- “I don’t feel the sickness yet, but it’s in the post. That’s for sure. I’m in the junkie limbo at the moment. Too ill to sleep. Too tired to stay awake, but the sickness is on its way. Sweat, chills, nausea. Pain and craving. A need like nothing else I’ve ever known will soon take hold of me. It’s on its way.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
11- “When you’re on junk you have only one worry: scoring. When you’re off it you are suddenly obliged to worry about all sorts of other shite. Got no money: can’t get pissed. Got money: drinking too much. Can’t get a bird: no chance of a ride. Got a bird: too much hassle. You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never fucking wins, about human relationships and all the things that really don’t matter when you’ve got a sincere and truthful junk habit.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
12- “People think it’s all about misery and desperation and death and all that shit which is not to be ignored, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn’t do it. After all, we’re not fucking stupid. At least, we’re not that fucking stupid.” [about drug addicts] -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
13- “It’s shite being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
14- “The downside of coming off junk was I knew I would need to mix with my friends again in a state of full consciousness. It was awful. They reminded me so much of myself, I could hardly bear to look at them.” -Mark Renton, ‘Trainspotting’.
15- “That’s what keeps a relationship going through the years. Like heroin, I mean heroin’s got a great fucking personality.” -Sick Boy, ‘Trainspotting’.
16- “Armed robbery. With a replica. I mean, how the fuck can it be armed robbery with a fucking replica?”-Begbie, ‘Trainspotting’.
17- “- 2nd Interviewer: Mr. Murphy, what attracts you to the leisure industry?
– Spud: In a word: pleasure. It’s like, my pleasure in other people’s leisure.” [during a job interview]-Spud, ‘Trainspotting’.
18- “- 1st Interviewer: Mr. Murphy, do you mean that you lied on your application?
– Spud: No! Uh. Yes. Only to get my foot in the door. Showing initiative and that like.
– 1st Interviewer: But you were referred here by the department of employment, there was no need for you to get your “foot in the door”, as you put it.
– Spud: Ehhh… cool. Whatever you say, I’m sorry. You’re the man. The dude in the chair.” [during a job interview] -Spud, ‘Trainspotting’.
19- “- Sick Boy: “The Name of The Rose” is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
– Renton: What about “The Untouchables”?
– Sick Boy: I don’t rate that at all.
– Renton: Despite the Academy Award?
– Sick Boy: That means fuck all. Its a sympathy vote.
– Renton: Right. So we all get old and then we can’t hack it anymore. Is that it?” –‘Trainspotting’.
20- “- Renton: Take the best orgasm you’ve ever had… multiply it by a thousand, and you’re still nowhere near it.
– Allison: It beats any meat injection. That beats any fucking cock in the world.” [they both took heroin] –‘Trainspotting’.
21- “- Swanney: Would Sir care for a starter of some garlic bread perhaps?
– Renton: No, thank you. I will proceed directly to the intravenous injection of hard drugs, please.” [Swanney is a drug dealer] –‘Trainspotting’.
22- “- Spud: It’s a nightmare. She told me she didn’t want our relationship to start on a physical basis as that is how it would be principally defined from then on in.
– Tommy: Where did she come up with that?
– Spud: She read it in “Cosmopolitan”.
– Tommy: Six weeks and no sex?
– Spud: I’ve got balls like watermelons, I’m telling you.” –‘Trainspotting’.
23- “- Sick Boy: At one time, you’ve got it, and then you lose it, and it’s gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed…
– Renton: Some of his solo stuff’s not bad.
– Sick Boy: No, it’s not bad, but it’s not great either. And in your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it’s actually just shite.” –‘Trainspotting’.
24- “- Renton: I’ll come back with you if you like, but like, I’m not promising anything, you know.
– Diane: Do you find that this approach usually works? Or let me guess, you’ve never tried it before. In fact, you don’t normally approach girls, am I right?” –‘Trainspotting’.
25- “- Diane: You’re not getting any younger, Mark. The world’s changing. Music’s changing. Even drugs are changing. You can’t stay in here all day dreaming about heroin and Ziggy Pop.
– Renton: It’s Iggy Pop.
– Diane: Whatever. I mean, the guy’s dead anyway.
– Renton: Iggy Pop’s not dead. He toured last year! Tommy went to see him.
– Diane: The point is, you’ve got to find something new.” –‘Trainspotting’.
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