A Quote by Martin Amis

Much modern prose is praised for its terseness, its scrupulous avoidance of curlicue, etcetera. But I don't feel the deeper rhythm there. I don't think these writers are being terse out of choice. I think they are being terse because it's the only way they can write.

Martin Amis

Quote Topics

Avoidance Because Being Choice Deeper Etcetera Feel Modern Much Only Out Praised Prose Rhythm Think Way Write Writers

Quote Author

Martin Amis
British - Novelist
Born: August 25, 1949

When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.

Horace

I'm a line-maker. I think that's what makes poets different from prose-writers. That's the main way. We think, not just in sentences the way prose writers do but also in lines. So we're doing these two things at the same time.

Billy Collins

I'm out of the terse Hemingway school.

Donald McCaig

In general, I would think that at present prose writers are much in advance of the poets. In the old days, I read more poetry than prose, but now it is in prose where you find things being put together well, where there is great ambition, and equal talent. Poets have gotten so careless, it is a disgrace. You can’t pick up a page. All the words slide off.

William H. Gass

I think that if a person doesn't feel cynical then they're out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization - you can't just swallow it whole.

Frank Zappa

You know, it's a funny thing about writers. Most people don't stop to think of books being written by people much like themselves. They think that writers are all dead long ago--they don't expect to meet them in the street or out shopping. They know their stories but not their names, and certainly not their faces. And most writers like it that way.

Cornelia Funke

Children's book writers tend to feel quite superior, and adult writers tend to feel they wouldn't know how to write a children's book - which might surprise you because I think a lot of people think it's the other way around.

John Boyne

I don't think I realized right away that I was switching from being a fan into being a performer. I've always tried to maintain that duality, because I think fandom is a way of being porous and curious, but it did feel like a step forward.

Carrie Brownstein

I say I'm the only serious comedian in the presidential race. And I'd like to take this opportunity to ask both Romney and Obama to debate me. Because I think that both of those guys - I think that the American people are being given a false choice, because the choice between the lesser of two evils is a false choice.

Roseanne Barr

I always wanted to be a scientist. I don't really have any writer friends. The process of being a writer is much more interior than being a scientist, because science is so reactionary. I think that all research scientists think of themselves as belonging to a grand tradition, building on work that has been worked on since the very beginning of science itself. Whereas I'm not sure writers think of themselves in the same way.

Hanya Yanagihara

Most people think that I'm so technical that I don't have a feel aspect or a rhythm aspect of it, but that's just the opposite. I need to get into my momentum and my rhythm in regards to being technical and analytical, and also being that artist.

Bryson DeChambeau

I'm still learning so much with every play I write. So I wrestle with word choice, rhythm in final drafts. I think you have to be ruthless.

Stephen Karam

I wonder whether I should gain anything by the attempt to assume a character which is not mine. My wavering manner, born of doubt and scruple, has at least the advantage of rendering all the different shades of my thought, and of being sincere. If it were to become terse, affirmative, resolute, would it not be a mere imitation?

Henri Frederic Amiel

Frustrated? Yes. Why? Because it is impossible for me to be God — or the universal woman-and-man — or anything much. I am what I feel and think and do. I want to express my being as fully as I can because I somewhere picked up the idea that I could justify my being alive that way.

Sylvia Plath

I work out hard, and I do things that I feel make me better throughout the race and after the race. And I feel better mentally because of working out, being prepared and being in great shape. Driving the car, I think with reflexes and things throw at your so quickly, you have to make adjustments - the feeling of your car, the heat. Some tracks can be tough on your neck and arms, and other tracks, not so much. I think there's a lot there that definitely takes some athletic ability, and I think that helps being athletic and being prepared like that. It helps me for sure.