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Of obvious appeal to the humourless is the writer who comes on stage in a clown outfit or King Kong suit, with party hat and harem slippers, with banana skins and custard pies... It remains a sound rule that funny journalism can only flourish as the offshoot or sideline of something larger. No funny journalist who is that and nothing more will ever write anything lastingly funny.

— Martin Amis The War Against Cliché: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000 (2001)

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More quotes by Martin Amis

In my experience of fights and fighting, it is invariably the aggressor who keeps getting everything wrong.

The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America (1986)

Being inoffensive, and being offended, are now the twin addictions of the culture.

All publicity isn't good publicity. As a New York publicist put it: "What: the guy's an asshole so I'll go and buy his novel?"

Experience (2000)

Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.

The arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves.

Einstein's Monsters (1987)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Martin Amis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.