Quotes by Jonathan Ames

About Jonathan Ames:

Jonathan Ames is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs. He was a columnist for the New York Press for several years, and became known for self-deprecating tales of his sexual misadventures. He also has a long-time interest in boxing, appearing occasionally in the ring as "The Herring Wonder". In 2009, he created the HBO television series Bored to Death.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone. Perhaps if I was depressed and isolated, just communicating with these authors through their sentences helped me.

Jonathan Ames

When I was in college, I had the good fortune to have Joyce Carol Oates as my writing teacher. She told me that I could take an aspect of myself, and from that one bit of personality, I can create a character. This is what I have done, particularly i...

Jonathan Ames

I don't like rides. I take everything in life quite literally, and so I genuinely feel terrified on rides and liable to vomit at any moment, and I hate to vomit even more than I fear rides.

Jonathan Ames

No, I'm not very productive at all. I'm probably like an animal. I mean, great animals in the ocean feed all the time. I'm someone who procrastinates, worries, for most of a month, and then I'll have a flurry of manic productivity with a sense of gre...

Jonathan Ames

There's no shortage of material in life.

Jonathan Ames

I'm actually much more shy and self-conscious than people's perception of me.

Jonathan Ames

Having a show get canceled is like, 'Oh, you have caviar between your teeth,' you know what I mean? Because you had a show in the first place.

Jonathan Ames

I don't like to publicly acknowledge being a Jew.

Jonathan Ames

I didn't play or like a lot of board games as a child. I liked playing with my G.I. Joes and making up adventures for them.

Jonathan Ames

I have very few hobbies. In fact, I have no hobbies.

Jonathan Ames

I am always the source of the worst rumors about myself.

Jonathan Ames

I've always liked police-blotter kind of writing, or the writing of a policeman, right to the point and hardboiled. That's how I see at least the prose elements of scriptwriting.

Jonathan Ames

A lot of writers, probably because they're sensitive, which makes them want to be writers, have fears about their masculinity, so they overcompensate by having an interest in boxing and tough-guy things.

Jonathan Ames

Even when I was living below the poverty line as a novelist, I was still living better than 99.5% of the human population of the world. But in my little, soft realm of trying to amuse a few dozen middle-class people with my books and articles, I did ...

Jonathan Ames

I don't laugh that much, but I do like humorous books, and I like to entertain readers that way.

Jonathan Ames

I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldn't write.

Jonathan Ames

For me, the past is dead. Can't go back.

Jonathan Ames

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.

Jonathan Ames

A lot of writing is a form of seeing - putting down what you see in terms of action and landscape.

Jonathan Ames

Now, all writing - all the arts - are a form of 'Pay attention to me,' but there's also the flip side. Like, I want to give something. Let me entertain you, let me amuse you, let me try to please you with this thing I've made. And then pay attention ...

Jonathan Ames

Author Bio

  • NameJonathan Ames
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist, memoirist
  • BornMarch 23, 1964
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist; Essayist; Writer
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship