addiction

belief

bodyguard

broadway

Charles Dickens

cinema

closure

Don Quixote

faith

fiction

grandfather

interview

life

literature

love

manipulation

marriage

novelist

nuclear weapons

political correctness

racism

religious belief

satirist

style

tennis

universe

writer

writing

occupation / innovator as

university teacher

science fiction writer

nationality

British

short story writer

screenwriter

memoirist

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Royal Society of Literature

is at times handy: at least you have to get out of bed for it.

Addictions do come in handy sometimes: at least you have to get out of bed for them.

is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.

Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.

is one for whom 99.9% of the work consists in one activity: frowning.

Ninety-nine point nine per cent of the work of a professional bodyguard consisted of one activity: frowning.

is the mounting python of strict New York.

is a much misunderstood and mis-approached writer, in that he tends to be read, particularly in the twentieth century, as a social commentator - like the great Victorians, a realist in his way. But he isn't at all like that. His genre is actually more like a fairy tale - weird transformations, long voyages from which people come back altered, parental mysteries, semi-magical twists.

Dickens is a much misunderstood and mis-approached writer, in that he tends to be read, particularly in the twentieth century, as a social commentator - like the great Victorians, a realist in his way. But he isn't at all like that. His genre is actually more like a fairy tale - weird transformations, long voyages from which people come back altered, parental mysteries, semi-magical twists.

is contrasted with literature, very broadly, in this: literature concerns itself with the internal, cinema with the external.

Very broadly, literature concerns itself with the internal, cinema with the external.

is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth is that nobody gets over anything.

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth is that nobody gets over anything.

is a working-class hero in America. In England, the policeman is a working-class traitor.

In America, the policeman is a working-class hero. In England, the policeman is a working-class traitor.

is a talent, and it goes the way of all your talents; getting old is the subtraction of your powers.

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.

is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life

Fiction is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life

is unable to reveal what a person is like, but (and far more compelling to some) it reveals what a person is like to interview.

The literary interview won't tell you what a writer is like. Far more compellingly to some, it will tell you what a writer is like to interview.

's trouble is its amorphousness, its ridiculous fluidity. It is thinly plotted, largely themeless, sentimental and ineluctably trite. The dialogue is poor, or at least violently uneven. The twists are either predictable or sensationalist. And it’s always the same beginning, and the same ending.

The trouble with life is its amorphousness, its ridiculous fluidity. Look at it: thinly plotted, largely themeless, sentimental and ineluctably trite. The dialogue is poor, or at least violently uneven. The twists are either predictable or sensationalist. And it’s always the same beginning, and the same ending.

is contrasted with cinema, very broadly, in this: literature concerns itself with the internal, cinema with the external.

is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

is a sibling relationship, marked by occasional, rather regrettable, episodes of incest.

After a while marriage is a sibling relationship, marked by occasional, rather regrettable, episodes of incest.

is an object with a strange intransigent ontology built into their very function whereby they are both the cause, target, response and mode of preventing their own use.

What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons' Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons' Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons' Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons' By threatening the use of nuclear weapons. And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons. The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.

is an attempt, both understandable and misinformed, to 'accelerate evolution'.

In words that refer back to his earlier comments in Einstein's Monsters about nuclear weapons, Martin argues that political correctness should be categorized as an attempt, both understandable and misinformed, to 'accelerate evolution.' He refuses, for instance, to excuse Larkin's 'racial snarls,' which he labels 'mood-cliches,' 'inherited propositions, shamefully unexamined, humiliatingly average.' Furthermore, he argues that

is sadly a golden hand-grenade that one can lob at anyone knowing that it is going to stick.

Racism is just the golden hand-grenade that you lob at anyone - you know it's going to stick.

is not neutral... it gives moral directions.

Style is not neutral... it gives moral directions. Martin Amis

Martin AmisThinkers

Martin Amis