. A.L. Kennedy, fiction writer:

I would experience a wave of excitement and joy on the day devolution dawned. I am always more moved by people and events close to me personally and something on a national scale would take time to be digested into any fictional writing I might produce.

If Scotland were to devolve and have any kind of real independence as a small country within Europe then I hope that an enlightened government would recognise the important role that the arts would have to play in contributing a fair percentage of our national income. A healthy, live culture would prevent us from slipping even further down the path of national imagineering and theme; parking.

. Ken Currie, Glasgow based visual artist:

At the end of the day, we'll still have to exhibit our work in London, because it is a big international centre for art, like New York. But the idea of devolution is inspiring. It would give a lot of artists a sense of the future, of something to work for.

At the moment, most cultural institutions in Scotland are run by English people. It's very annoying. But if you complain, you are accused of being racist.

As Alasdair Gray (the Glasgow novelist) said, "we have to work as if in the early days of a new and better nation".

. Martyn Bennett, composer and musician. His music is a mixture of Celtic folk and urban dance styles:

I'm not sure if it will make any difference to my work, but I'm prodevolution. It should be done with dignity and not with the tag of xenophobia.

Scotland could run itself. The revenue taken from Scotland is three times as much per head of population as any other place in Britain. Scotland has a lot of resources and industries.

A lot of money is put into Gaelic programmes but the people in charge tend to be English. Most Gaelic programmes on the BBC are dreadful, and Gaelic tends to be promoted with too much razzmatazz. It doesn't work if you try to impose consumer culture.

. Kathleen Jamie, poet:

Although my imaginative space is bigger than Scotland and always will be, I would be interested in seeing an independent Scotland.

Perhaps it would end up being too small and cosy; the idea of being able to see Cabinet Ministers in Edinburgh cafes is rather strange.

I don't even want to imagine what will happen if Labour loses. We'll be bailing over to Ireland in our thousands.

. Phil Cunningham, traditional piano accordianist, composer and producer:

The music scene is very fragmented in Scotland: there are all these subdivisions fighting for their own corner. There is no sense that we are all Scottish musicians. If we had an independent identity, perhaps we would all pull together.

From trad to classical to rock, a lot of music comes out of Scotland, but there is no major record company representation in Scotland (whereas there is in Ireland). If a Scottish musician gets signed to a major label, he's handled by a company in England. I'd like to see my recordings going to the US and Europe from Scotland, not from England. You want to be recognised as coming from where you come from.

. Janet Pierce, Scottish born visual artist living in Ireland:

The law in Scotland is already separate from the law in England. Our legal system is based on the French model, which is more sympathetic to women. Also, when I went to art college in Scotland, we were taught about our own Scottish culture and our strong visual heritage first.

But now that I live in a small country that is autonomous, I realise how much Scotland has suffered from not being autonomous. Dublin is a European capital, Edinburgh is not. Ireland is proud of its artists: that's what happens when you have autonomy.

If Labour doesn't get in, there will be civil strife in Scotland. Thatcher's values are the antithesis of Scottish values. The Scots are not as class conscious nor as racist as the English.

. Robin Robertson, poet and deputy publishing director at Jonathan Cape:

If Scotland gets its own parliament, it is impossible to know what will happen. The ramifications for the arts will be slow to appear. The seedbed of young talent will continue to flourish. The publishers in Scotland will continue to be much smaller than the big firms south of the border.

Tensions won't go away in our life time. In the Highlands they are still talking about Culloden as if it happened yesterday. And even if all the Lottery money in the world was ploughed into Scotland, it would still be a country of moaners.