Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amisis a British novelist. His best-known novels are Moneyand London Fields. He has received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir Experience and has been listed for the Booker Prize twice to date. Amis served as the Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester until 2011. In 2008, The Times named him one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth25 August 1949
way stds monogamy
[On STDs] This be Nature’s way of recommending monogamy.
fiction way
Fiction is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life
thinking dying way
I don't think I've ever been particularly scared of death - but scared of dying, the process. It doesn't seem to be a good way of doing it.
doubt way kind
It's without doubt my main subject. The way masculinity can go wrong. And I'm something of a gynocrat in a utopian kind of way.
people feelings way
People look at fame and feel deprived if they haven't got it, feeling that this is a basic, almost a human right, a civil right. And also feel the same way about wealth, I suppose - why haven't I got it?
cute thinking way
You can't be up the reader's ass, as many a writer I think is - cute as hell, ingratiating as hell. But that's not loving the reader in the right way. That's toadying to the reader.
perfect elbows way
Mere fact has no chance of being formally perfect. It will get in the way, it will be all elbows.
fun character way
It's good fun to create an unpredictable character. When he comes into the room, I don't know what he's going to do - I have to find my way.
perception style way
Style isn't something added on; it's intrinsic to the perceptions and the way you see life.
writing way talent
Faith is a talent, and it goes the way of all your talents. Getting old is the subtraction of your powers. Which very much goes for writing.
anathema ask conscious directing fiction freedom injury might otherwise people serious
People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. 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 who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.
cared given god religion
If God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion.
adaptation experience jokes money novel seeing suddenly thrust violent watching
Watching an adaptation of your novel can be a violent experience: seeing your old jokes suddenly thrust at you can be alarming. But I started to enjoy 'Money' very quickly, and then I relaxed.
art grow lion
Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without the thorn.