“Now I have to lie on the bed for a few minutes and let the solitude gather round me once more.” — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I think all writers have a bit of genius in them, and a bit of talent. Genius retreats but talent improves. — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I don't think I've ever been particularly scared of death - but scared of dying, the process. It doesn't seem to be… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It's tremendously important how you get on with the other sex. Your life record on that is incredibly important. You never really… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It's often said of American politics that it's a huge juggernaut and the president can change the direction by two or three… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
When I hear about some sensational new writer I sort of think, Shut up ... you've got to be around for a… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Everything seems fine until you're about 40. Then something is definitely beginning to go wrong. And you look in the mirror with… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
You can't be up the reader's ass, as many a writer I think is - cute as hell, ingratiating as hell. But… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It's a young country and a German only feels comfortable being with the masses. They have very little talent at creating an… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
The children of the nuclear age, I think, were weakened in their capacity to love. Hard to love, when you're bracing yourself… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Jane was my wicked stepmother: she was generous, affectionate and resourceful; she salvaged my schooling and I owe her an unknowable debt… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I had my yob periods. Nothing violent but certainly loutish. I think it's frustrated intelligence. Imagine that if you were really intelligent… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
For both of us, I think, it had to do with our weakened power to love. It is strange that enslavement should… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Oh Christ, the exhaustion of not knowing anything. It's so tiring and hard on the nerves. It really takes it out of… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It sounds schmaltzy to say, but fiction is much more to do with love than people admit or acknowledge. The novelist has… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I think it's likely that the civilizing effect of literature has done most of the work, and still continues to do. Look… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
“Suicide is what everyone young thinks they'll do before they get old. But they hardly ever get round to it. They just… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that the world is there to be celebrated by writers, and in fact this is… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
On any longer view, man is only fitfully committed to the rational -- to thinking, seeing, learning, knowing. Believing is what he's… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
The middle class is doing fine in fiction. But it's not what gets me going. I love the working class, and everyone… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I think a lot of people who read fiction are interested in subtlety. But they wouldn't like my stuff. It's a bit… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I don't think I'd like Manhattan anymore. My mother-in-law lives there, and you go there. But I like looking at it from… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
My theory is - we don’t really go that far into other people, even when we think we do. We hardly ever… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Much modern prose is praised for its terseness, its scrupulous avoidance of curlicue, etcetera. But I don't feel the deeper rhythm there.… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I think novelists are in the education business, really, but they're not teaching you times tables, they are teaching you responsiveness and… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Saul Bellow says, funny enough, what French think of your work is tremendously important. And it is. It's more than what the… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It used to be said, not so long ago, that every suicide gave Satan special pleasure. I don't think that's true-unless it… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
Well, my father Kingsley Amis was a writer and it seemed natural to start writing in my late teens. I think it… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I love the working class, and everyone from it that I've met, and think they're incredible witty, inventive - there's a lot… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
I think Jorge Borges said that when Argentineans die they turn into angels and go and live in Uruguay. But for the… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
In Germany, they were very interested in talking about their past. I respect that, and I think they've done quite well. It's… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
It seems to me that you need a lot of courage, or a lot of something, to enter into others, into other… — Martin Amis Copy Share Image
“Yeah,' I said and started smoking another cigarette. Unless I inform you otherwise, I'm always smoking another cigarette.” — Martin Amis Copy Share
“barrios; each barrio has two or three gangs, and all the gangs are theoretically” — Martin Amis Copy Share
I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what… — Martin Amis Copy Share
“If we all downed tools and joined hands for ten minutes and stopped believing in money, then money would no longer exist. We never… — Martin Amis Copy Share
When I see a lot of young faces in the audience, it's just sort of sinking in how important that is. Because you're old… — Martin Amis Copy Share
“I was informed by my viscera that now was the time to put my arm around her shoulders. I ignored them.” — Martin Amis Copy Share
It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that the world is there to be celebrated by writers, and in fact this is what all… — Martin Amis Copy Share
In her final months Princess Diana was being shat upon by the tabloids -- basically for sleeping with an Arab. When she died, these… — Martin Amis Copy Share
If you feel you have a strong constituency among the young, you can really die happy, because the great unanswered question, the only valid… — Martin Amis Copy Share
My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived. — Martin Amis Copy Share
I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of… — Martin Amis Copy Share
The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don't put money on it. Take my advice… — Martin Amis Copy Share
“There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics [notably the lower clergy] for… — Martin Amis Copy Share
