If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing. by Kingsley Amis

If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.

Kingsley Amis

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Categorized in : Littles Writing Editing

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure.

employment criticism self

I've been trying to write for as long as I can remember. But those first fifteen years didn't produce much of great interest. I mean, it embarrasses me very much to look back on my early poems--very few lines of any merit at all and lots of affectation. But there were quite a lot of them. That's a point in one's favor.

writing mean years

Politics is a thing that only the unsophisticated can really go f... by Kingsley Amis

Politics is a thing that only the unsophisticated can really go for.

Nice things are nicer than nasty ones. by Kingsley Amis

Nice things are nicer than nasty ones.

nice-things nasty nice

Those who professed themselves unable to believe in the reality of human progress ought to cheer themselves up, as the students under examination had conceivably been cheered up, by a short study of the Middle Ages. The hydrogen bomb, the South African Government, Chioang Kaidick, Senator McCarthy himself, would then seem a light price to pay for no longer being in the Middle Ages.

cheer believe reality

Your attitude measures up to the two requirements of love. You want to go to bed with her and can't, and you don't know her very well. Ignorance of the other person topped up with deprivation, Jim. You fit the formula all right, and what's more you want to go on fitting it.

ignorance love-you attitude

Being American is, I think, a very difficult thing in art, becaus... by Kingsley Amis

Being American is, I think, a very difficult thing in art, because all the elements are European.

elements art thinking

Hangover cure: Rigorous sex, hydration, hot bath, then "go up for half an hour in an open aeroplane. (needless to say, with a non-hungover person at the controls)."

hydration hangover sex

I sometimes feel that more lousy dishes are presented under the b... by Kingsley Amis

I sometimes feel that more lousy dishes are presented under the banner of pate than any other.

cooking food sometimes

I am always incorrigibly interested in the behaviour of the 'human animal', and look forward to perusing divers effusions of your lively pen.

behaviour animal looks

The ideal of brotherhood of man, the building of the Just City, is one that cannot be discarded without lifelong feelings of disappointment and loss. But, if we are to live in the real world, discard it we must.

real disappointment loss

I wish I could have a little tape-and-loudspeaker arrangement sewn into the binding of this magazine, to be triggered off by the light reflected from the reader's eyes on to this part of the page, and set to bawl out at several bels: MORE WILL MEAN WORSE.

light eye mean

Never despise a drink because it is easy to make and/or uses commercial mixes. Unquestioning devotion to authenticity is, in any department of life, a mark of the naive - or worse.

authenticity drink use

The human race has not devised any way of dissolving barriers, getting to know the other chap fast, breaking the ice, that is one-tenth as handy and efficient as letting you and the other chap, or chaps, cease to be totally sober at about the same rate in agreeable surroundings.

ice race way

It is no wonder that people are so horrible when they start life... by Kingsley Amis

It is no wonder that people are so horrible when they start life as children.

inspirational life children

You'll find that marriage is a good short cut to the truth. No, not quite that. A way of doubling back to the truth. Another thing you'll find is that the years of illusion aren't those of adolescense, as the grown-ups try to tell us; they're the ones immediately after it, say the middle twenties, the false maturity if you like, when you first get thoroughly embroiled in things and lose your head. Your age, by the way, Jim. That's when you first realize that sex is important to other people besides yourself. A discovery like that can't help knocking you off balance for a time.

maturity cutting sex

Cats are only human, they have their faults. by Kingsley Amis

Cats are only human, they have their faults.

faults cat humans

How wrong people always were when they said: 'It's better to know the worst than go on not knowing either way.' No; they had it exactly the wrong way round. Tell me the truth, doctor, I'd sooner know. But only if the truth is what I want to hear.

doctors knowing people

Death has this much to be said for it: You don't have to get out of bed for it. Wherever you happen to be They bring it to you—free.

bed said death

Yevgeny Yevtushenko: 'You atheist?' "Kingsley Amis: 'Well, yes, b... by Kingsley Amis

Yevgeny Yevtushenko: 'You atheist?' "Kingsley Amis: 'Well, yes, but it's more that I hate him.

wells hate atheist