A Quote by Ian Mcewan

I actually find novels that are determined to be funny at every turn quite oppressive. — © Ian Mcewan
I actually find novels that are determined to be funny at every turn quite oppressive.
For some reason, people find me funny. It's quite hard to define why a thought is funny. It's even harder to define why a person would be funny. It's a word that I can't define at all. But whether I know quite what it is or not, I seem to be it.
How we shape our understanding of others' lives is determined by what we find memorable in them, and that in turn is determined not by any potentially accurate overview of another's personality but rather by the tension and balance that exist in our daily relationships.
In hard times, North Carolinians have shown that we bounce back. But that's not by chance. It's because we are determined. Determined to tough it out. To help each other, and leave no one behind. Determined to turn our obstacles into opportunities.
Fiction allows us to see the world from the point of view of someone else and there has been quite a lot of neurological research that shows reading novels is actually good for you. It embeds you in society and makes you think about other people. People are certainly better at all sorts of things if they can hold a novel in their heads. It is quite a skill, but if you can't do it then you're missing out on something in life. I think you can tell, when you meet someone, whether they read novels or not. There is some little hollowness if they don't.
I find that nonfiction writers are the likeliest to turn out interesting novels.
I have a suspicion - I have to be careful what I say - that you might actually find the best comics actually written by people who are comics writers and who aren't setting out to do graphic novels.
I often say to my students in workshops that if they are trying to find literary inspiration, they should not go and read novels, because novels are more appropriate for series. Where as they should read short stories - that's the right format for you to be able to actually display the narrative in a film.
Veterans' issues are quite close to my heart. I find it quite hard to talk about, actually.
Some lucky people can be funny without half trying because they actually look funny, because acting funny is in their bones - fun as funny, not funny as crude slapstick.
There are quite a few very funny people in my life. You know those people who don't mean to be funny, they just come out with these zingers that just make you howl with laughter. Usually you find these people in the road crew. A good crew is a key to a healthy funny bone.
Chekhov, when it's done well and you're ready for it, can actually be quite funny.
For me, funny is funny, and what's unfortunate is these comedians aren't being allowed to operate in rooms for everybody and that everybody can laugh and say, 'Okay, I find that person funny, and I don't just have to find them funny because they look like me.'
I actually think I'm still quite childishly optimistic in a certain way, which is maybe why I find life quite shocking.
I think funny comes from tragedy and time. And I think that's where I get it. I'm able to take things that are serious and sad, and turn it into funny. In all honesty - this is after a lot of therapy - I think that, you know, I need love from something, and so now, I find it through performing.
The original outline for 'Mississippi Grind' was actually an attempt to go funny. But when we showed it to people we realized that maybe it wasn't as funny to other people as it was to us - we have a pretty specific sense of what's funny - and then we thought, O.K., we need to do this more like we would actually make one of our movies.
I've adapted my own work a couple of times, and I've also given my novels to other people to adapt, and I do find that quite difficult.
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