Kingsley Amis quotes

Kingsley Amis was a British novelist, poet, and critic, celebrated for his witty and satirical writing style. His novel "Lucky Jim" is considered a classic of postwar British literature. He became an influential figure in twentieth-century English letters and won the Booker Prize. Here are 39 of his quotes:

If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.

Kingsley Amis

There was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.

Kingsley Amis

If there's one word that sums up everything that's gone wrong since the war, it's Workshop. After Youth, that is.

Kingsley Amis

Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; Girls aren't like that.

Kingsley Amis

A bad review may spoil your breakfast, but you shouldn't allow it to spoil your lunch.

Kingsley Amis

More will mean worse.

Kingsley Amis

We should be wrong to demand that a critic must stay on the point all the time; it is enough if he remains in orbit around it.

Kingsley Amis

Your attitude measures up to the two requirements of love. You want to go to bed with her and can't, and you don't know her very well. Ignorance of the other person topped up with deprivation, Jim. You fit the formula all right, and what's more you want to go on fitting it.

Kingsley Amis

Be glad you're fifty - and That you got there while things were nice, In a world worth looking at twice. So here's wishing you many more years, But not all that many. Cheers!

Kingsley Amis

Should you revisit us Stay a little longer And get to know the place... On local life we trust The resident witness Not the royal tourist.

Kingsley Amis

From an outsider's point of view, a naked woman out of doors is either a sun-worshipper or a rape victim; a man in the same state is either a sexual criminal or a plain lunatic.

Kingsley Amis

I was a shit when I met you. I still am in lots of ways. But because of you I've had to give up trying to be a dedicated, full-time shit. I couldn't make it, hadn't the strength of character. Which is a pity in a way, because when you fall back into the ranks of the failed shits or amateur shits or incidental shits you start taking on responsibility for other people.

Kingsley Amis

I'll pour you the first one and after that, if you don't have one, it's your own f****** fault. You know where it is.

Kingsley Amis

You can't screw the rich, something in Ronnie muttered as Miss Quick got off him with quite as much alacrity as she had got on him. You have to let them screw you. Or else you leave out screwing altogether.

Kingsley Amis

Oh, I see,' said Jenny. 'But you're just getting these men [New Age gurus] to help you all feel better. I thought when you talked about helping people you meant other people. You know, like the blind.' 'Isn't everybody blind, in one way or another?' asked Wendy.

Kingsley Amis

He was short on the one attribute certain to meet the immediate respect of the rich - i. e. being rich - and must therefore obtrude deterrents against being buggered about.

Kingsley Amis

There isn't another other sex. (p. 254)

Kingsley Amis

Sex is a momentary itch, love never lets you go.

Kingsley Amis

Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way.

Kingsley Amis

Shitty things are always simple. Same as great things. Patrick Standish, in conversation.

Kingsley Amis

It's quite a problem for retired people, I do see. All of a sudden the evening starts starting after breakfast. All those hours with nothing to stay sober for. Or nothing to naturally stay sober during, if you see what I...We used to laugh at Malcolm's dad, the way he used to mark up the wireless programs in Radio Times in different-coloured pencils. Never caught him listening to any of them but it was an hour taken care of.

Kingsley Amis

Any man in the company of two women is outnumbered four to one however amiable they may be.

Kingsley Amis