A Quote by Martin Amis

When I wrote 'The Pregnant Widow' three or four years ago, I tried to reread my first novel, 'The Rachel Papers,' because their young heroes are the same age. I couldn't finish it. It seemed to me so technically slapdash and weak.

Martin Amis

Quote Topics

Age Because Finish First Four Four Years Heroes Me Novel Papers Pregnant Same Same Age Seemed Technically Three Tried Weak Widow Wrote Years Years Ago Young

Quote Author

Martin Amis
British - Novelist
Born: August 25, 1949

I had tried writing novels for many years, and they always escaped me. For a long time, I thought, 'It's just not in me to write a novel. It's not something I'm able to do.' It seemed like everything I wrote naturally ended at the bottom of page three. A picture book, three pages; an essay, three pages.

Kathi Appelt

I finished my first novel - it was around 300 pages long - when I was 16. Wrote one more before I got out of high school, then wrote the first Lincoln Perry novel when I was 19. It didn't sell, but I liked the character and I knew the world so I tried what was, in my mind, a sequel. Wrote that when I was 20, and that one made it.

Michael Koryta

I'm trying to break myself of that habit [of not writing out a first draft ] because I'm working on a couple novels and I know if I tried to write those books the way I wrote the stories it would take me years to finish.

Donald Ray Pollock

When I wrote 'Savage Season,' it was three years later before I wrote the second Hap and Leonard novel. Whenever I wrote one, I never intended to write the next one.

Joe R. Lansdale

My first memories are from when I was very little, maybe three or four years old playing in my neighbourhood at home. I can picture myself with the ball at my feet from a very young age.

Lionel Messi

I wrote before I could write. I got my hands on a journal, maybe a hand-me-down; I had three older siblings. My first entries are in the handwriting of the sister closets in age (5 years my senior). She must have gotten tired of my dictations because she gave up and then my blocky scrawl shows up. I wrote plays as a kid mostly.

Julianna Baggott

I stopped buying Sunday papers about 15 years ago, because you'd buy handfuls of them, and what you got, because the hard news comes from so many other channels, was opinion pieces. You're better off spending the money on a good novel.

Gerry Adams

I'd say that, first and foremost, I'm a performer; I started performing when I was four years old, and being on stage from a young age set me up.

Paloma Faith

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.

Michael Connelly

I've just realised that I lean towards telly that features people of a similar age to me. That's a bit weird, isn't it? I watch soaps with casts of all ages because there are at least three or four people in my age band. Somehow it's fine if they're a murderer as long as they're not a young one.

Sarah Millican

I'm not typing. I write only by longhand. I've always written first drafts by hand and then once I was into a second or third draft I wrote insert pages on a typewriter. But I got rid of all my typewriters about three or four novels ago and now I do everything by hand. I write by hand because it makes me go slow and going slow is what I like.

John Irving

My first published novel, American Rust, took three and a half years of full-time work to write. But I wrote two apprentice novels before that.

Philipp Meyer

My first published novel, 'American Rust,' took three and a half years of full-time work to write. But I wrote two apprentice novels before that.

Philipp Meyer

The first time I got pregnant, I was a young girl - I was 17 years old. Although I knew right away that I wanted to keep my child, being a pregnant teen was an extremely scary experience for me. Luckily, my family and friends were very supportive and were there for me every step of the way.

Paula Garces

I've been a Mac guy for almost my entire adult life. I wrote my first college papers on a typewriter, but by the end of my freshman year - almost 20 years ago - I was on an IBM PC. Then, in 1984, I found the Mac, and I never looked back.