Martin Amis quotes - page 5

It's been said that happiness writes white. It doesn't show up on the page. (Martin Amis)
I once wrote, in The Information, that an Englishman wouldn't bother to attend a reading even if the author in question was his favorite living writer, and also his long-lost brother - even if the reading was taking place next door. View quote
Martin Amis
Saddam's hands-on years in the dungeons distinguish him from the other great dictators of the 20th century, none of whom had much taste for "the wet stuff". View quote
Martin Amis
Viewed at its grandest, P.C. is an attempt to accelerate evolution. To speak truthfully, while that's still okay, everybody is a racist or has racial prejudices. This is because human beings tend to like the similar, the familiar, the familial. View quote
Martin Amis
It's all very irrational, like all ideology. View quote
Martin Amis
I think it's the whole impulse to judge and censor and euphemize, that is the enemy. View quote
Martin Amis
A joke is by definition politically incorrect - it assumes a butt, and a certain superiority in the teller. The culture won't put up with that for much longer. View quote
Martin Amis
People don't change or improve much, but they do evolve. It is very slow. View quote
Martin Amis
Larkin the man is separated from us historically by changes in the self. For his generation, you were what you were and that was that. It made you unswervable and adamantine. My father had this quality. I don't. None of us do. There are too many forces at work, there are too many fronts to cover. View quote
Martin Amis
It was explained that the North Korean matter was a diplomatic inconvenience, while Iraq's non-disarmament remained a "crisis". The reason was strategic: even without WMDs, North Korea could inflict a million casualties on its southern neighbour and raze Seoul. Iraq couldn't manage anything on this scale, so you could attack it. View quote
Martin Amis
This wouldn't happen with my children. They've known, they've mingled with black people all their lives. This certainly is not going to occur. And so it goes on in this incremental way. ... I think this is the only way it can be achieved. The trouble with proclaiming yourself to be cleansed of atavism is that it's not the case. It's an illusion. It's an illusion that can only be maintained by ideology and executive policing. It is forced consciousness. It's a lie to say, I have no racial feelings. Honesty and slow progress is a better policy, I think. (Martin Amis)
If God existed, and if He cared for humankind, He would never have given us religion. View quote
Martin Amis
Sex can be funny, but not very sexy. View quote
Martin Amis
Interacting with literature is easy. View quote
Martin Amis
Like all "acts of terrorism" (easily and unsubjectively defined as organised violence against civilians), September 11 was an attack on morality: we felt a general deficit. View quote
Martin Amis
I think it's a very confused culture. On the one hand, no one is better than anyone else; no one is prettier. On the other hand, everyone is completely obsessed by their looks and by how they strike the world. View quote
Martin Amis
Violence must come; America must have catharsis. We would hope that the response will be, above all, non-escalatory. It should also mirror the original attack in that it should have the capacity to astonish. View quote
Martin Amis
Terror always has its roots in hysteria and psychotic insecurity; still, we should know our enemy. The firefighters were not afraid to die for an idea. But the suicide killers belong in a different psychic category, and their battle effectiveness has, on our side, no equivalent. Clearly, they have contempt for life. Equally clearly, they have contempt for death. Their aim was to torture tens of thousands, and to terrify hundreds of millions. In this, they have succeeded. View quote
Martin Amis
This moment was the apotheosis of the postmodern era - the era of images and perceptions. View quote
Martin Amis
Motion is extremely irritated by Larkin's extreme irritability. He's always complaining that Larkin is always complaining. View quote
Martin Amis
Only it was much, much worse than that. In fact, words alone cannot adduce how much worse it was than that. September 11 was an attack on words: we felt a general deficit. (Martin Amis)
I think enlightenment is incremental, and I see it in my children. View quote
Martin Amis
For those thousands in the south tower, the second plane meant the end of everything. For us, its glint was the worldflash of a coming future. View quote
Martin Amis
It now seems that pornography is the leading sex educator in the Western world. View quote
Martin Amis
And we're not going to do that. View quote
Martin Amis