[William] Eggleston's photographs look like they were taken by a Martian who lost the ticket for his flight home and ended up working at a gun shop in a small town near Memphis. On the weekend he searches for the ticket - it must be somewhere - with a haphazard thoroughness that confounds established methods of investigation. Votes: 7
I always like to be in the presence of people who are good at and love their jobs, Irrespective of their jobs. Votes: 6
I guess that as life is speeded up and our capacity for concentration is being nibbled away at by all the obvious things, that leads us actually to be more susceptible to boredom. Votes: 6
Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire. Votes: 4
Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it. Votes: 4
I want to stress, this is the experience-growing up in a working-class family-that defined me and continues to define me. It's the core of my being. And it explains, incidentally, a good deal about my love of America. Votes: 4
All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge. Votes: 3
Birds in flight, claims the architect Vincenzo Volentieri, are not between places - they carry their places with them. We never wonder where they live: they are at home in the sky, in flight. Flight is their way of being in the world. Votes: 3
I think I do have a sort of terrible propensity for boredom and for being bored, even though I am absolutely of the opinion that one shouldn't be bored and that there is no excuse for it and that it is a personal failing. Votes: 3
If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff Votes: 3
One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at. Votes: 3
Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation. Votes: 3
The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere. Votes: 3
People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously, did not go far enough. It was quite possible that the central event of your life could be something that didn't happen, or something you thought didn't happen. Otherwise there'd be no need for fiction, there'd only be memoirs and histories..." Votes: 1
He was the subject of a little respectful ribbing. But he was, of course, the captain, which meant he had to do lots of the ribbing himself. Votes: 1
Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels. Votes: 1
Beware of clichés. Not just the clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are clichés of observation and of thought - even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are clichés of form which conform to clichés of expectation. Votes: 0
Each of my book arrives at a form and a style that is appropriate to the subject. Votes: 0
Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something. Votes: 0
He [Thelonious Monk] played each note as though astonished by the previous one, as though every touch of his fingers on the keyboard was correcting an error and this touch in turn became an error to be corrected and so the tune never quite ended up the way it was meant to. Votes: 0
I'm so revolted by writers taking themselves seriously that, as a kind of protest, I've deprioritized the role of writing in my life. I do it when I've not got anything better to do " and even then I often do nothing instead. Votes: 0
If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, a new quality emerges, a special intensity of attention.' At first there can be a friction between our expectations of time and Tarkovsky-time and this friction is increasing in the twenty-first century as we move further and further away from Tarkovsky-time towards moron-time in which nothing can last"and no one can concentrate on anything"for longer than about two seconds. Votes: 0
In my 30s I used to go to the gym even though I hated it. The purpose of going to the gym was to postpone the day when I would stop going. That's what writing is to me: a way of postponing the day when I won't do it any more, the day when I will sink into a depression so profound it will be indistinguishable from perfect bliss. Votes: 0
Never ride a bike with the brakes on. If something is proving too difficult, give up and do something else. Try to live without resort to perseverance. Votes: 0
One of the reasons so many nonfiction books are so boring is because what they've done, very diligently, is fulfill the terms of their proposals. They've written up their proposal, long-form, and often what this does is then set up a sort of serial deal, where the whole book can essentially be reduced back to the size of the original proposal! Votes: 0
People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously, did not go far enough. It was quite possible that the central event of your life could be something that didn't happen, or something you thought didn't happen. Otherwise there'd be no need for fiction, there'd only be memoirs and histories... Votes: 0
The perfect life, the perfect lie, I realised after Christmas, is one which prevents you from doing that which you would ideally have done (painted, say, or written unpublishable poetry) but which, in fact, you have no wish to do. People need to feel that they have been thwarted by circumstances from pursuing the life which, had they led it, they would not have wanted; whereas the life they really want is precisely a compound of all those thwarting circumstances. Votes: 0
These days any self-respecting exhibition of nude photos has to have pornographically explicit images to prove that they are works of art. Votes: 0
To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf. Votes: 0
What I'm really interested in, as a reader and as a writer, is the idea of the nonfiction book that is not defined by its content, by its "about"-ness. Where you read it irrespective of whether you're interested in the subject. Votes: 0
When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things"as opposed to making things up"that did not quite happen. Votes: 0
The process of book writing for me is entirely one of trial and error. Votes: 0