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

I need to stay in the present and use that new-age mantra: 'I'm okay right now.' But I worry about all the things I'm failing at every moment.

Jonathan Ames

I might have some sort of personality disorder. I might not have proper filters; it might be some kind of version of Asperger's meets Tourettes meets prose.

Jonathan Ames

I promote my own self-hatred.

Jonathan Ames

Mostly I have to try to censor myself so as not to write things that will hurt other people, or that will go too far.

Jonathan Ames

I've really never written about my relationships, or things like that. I wouldn't want to divulge things that were too private.

Jonathan Ames

It's hard to leave New York: this is where my friends are, my parents are. It is so vital. The whole world seems to look to New York.

Jonathan Ames

To write about a place, you have to live there.

Jonathan Ames

I don't have ADD, but I only like to pay attention to the things I like to pay attention to, and things like getting a TV and getting the cable working are beyond me, and so I let such things lapse, sometimes for years. This applies to keeping my apa...

Jonathan Ames

The reason it's hard for me to tweet is I don't want to pronounce anything, and Twitter is for pronouncing.

Jonathan Ames

It's hard for me to think of writing a novel, because it takes so long.

Jonathan Ames

Something has happened where you almost never grow up in America. Maybe it's the greater wealth.

Jonathan Ames

There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly.

Jonathan Ames

I'm a somewhat isolated person in my own way, or I move along a little trail, I go this place, I go that place. It's not like I'm varying my exposure.

Jonathan Ames

I don't know that I've gotten much feedback directly from the literary world; sometimes I doubt even the notion that there is a literary world, though I guess there is or was.

Jonathan Ames

Twitter is so severe, you know? And it's completely for free, it's scattershot, and it's very easy to feel embarrassed. It's hard to be artful with it. It's like a ticker tape. It's not a forum that's worth mastering, you know?

Jonathan Ames

I don't mind being ridiculed - well, I guess I would mind a little, but it would only last a few minutes - it's all very ephemeral; it doesn't really matter what people think of me.

Jonathan Ames

I grew up in northern New Jersey - the banlieue of New York - and I now live in Brooklyn. I am separated from my parents by about 50 miles, but really there is almost no distance between us. I speak to them nearly every day.

Jonathan Ames

I am part of a vast generation of people who perpetually live as if they just graduated from college.

Jonathan Ames

People don't expect too much from literature. They just want to know they're not alone with being confused.

Jonathan Ames

I've always been inspired by Don Quixote as a role model of sorts, of the power of books to sort of make you insane in maybe a beautiful way.

Jonathan Ames

I don't really recognise success. I don't see myself as on an upwardly mobile trajectory. I see myself as on the edge of a cliff about to fall off.

Jonathan Ames

Author Bio

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