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I enjoy both TV writing and novel writing, and they are very similar. The goal is to entertain and amuse the audience, and I subscribe to this P.G. Wodehouse piece of advice: Try to give pleasure with every sentence.

Jonathan Ames

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Jonathan Ames
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: March 23
Author
Essayist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
New York City
New York
Trying
Novel
Wodehouse
Every
Pleasure
Subscribe
Audience
Amuse
Goal
Entertain
Enjoy
Sentence
Give
Similar
Giving
Piece
Writing
Advice

More quotes by Jonathan Ames

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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.
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Personally, I've never had it as a goal in life to be happy. Seems impossible to achieve. Even the Declaration of Independence seems to acknowledge this. They talk about the pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself.
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I've really never written about my relationships, or things like that. I wouldn't want to divulge things that were too private.
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I hid my underwear beneath a parked Peugeot.
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The reason it's hard for me to tweet is I don't want to pronounce anything, and Twitter is for pronouncing.
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Whether I'm writing scripts or prose, the goal is identical. To give pleasure. Now whether I succeed or not is up for debate, and, mostly, I fail. But I try. I like to make things. It's a way to stay busy during one's ephemeral and confusing life.
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Nothing wrong with changing your mind. That's a very unwaffling thing to say: Nothing wrong... Who am I to say that there's nothing wrong with it? Maybe something is wrong with changing your mind. Anyway, love is very, very difficult. I love. But probably because I hate myself on some deep, sick level, it makes loving difficult. But I do try.
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I don't really know the person who wrote the things I wrote. I kind of know him, but I change so much all the time that it's like I start fresh over and over and over and over. Writing-wise and life-wise.
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My sophomore English teacher encouraged me to write for the school paper, and that's what got me started. Suddenly it struck me that being a writer could be a romantic and adventurous position. Previously, I had thought I would be a tennis pro, giving lessons at a local club. I thought that would be a good life, and it might have been.
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It was one of those days when every time I went to go out the door, something grabbed me in the back of the brain and said, lie down and masturbate one more time.
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I've always been intrigued by Stockholm Syndrome. Reminds me of my childhood.
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A lot of writing is a form of seeing - putting down what you see in terms of action and landscape.
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Whenever I wrote fiction, people always seemed to think that what I wrote was true, that it was entirely autobiographical. And when I would write non-fiction, they often accused me of exaggeration and fictionalization.
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Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language.
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I live for coincidences. They briefly give to me the illusion or the hope that there's a pattern to my life, and if there's a pattern, then maybe I'm moving toward some kind of destiny where it's all explained.
Jonathan Ames
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It seems like the original 'Star Trek' could have gone on longer.
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I don't like to publicly acknowledge being a Jew.
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As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.
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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.
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There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly.
Jonathan Ames