Some ego is involved because I guess one wants to be perceived as a good clown and one puts one's name on the art; but it's so hard to do anything in life, trapped as we are in our bodies, that is purely selfless for others... somehow the self is always involved.

Jonathan Ames

Categorized in : Art Names Self

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

Jonathan Ames

confused literature people

I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldnt write.

Jonathan Ames

drink coffee writing

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

Jonathan Ames

generations college people

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.

Jonathan Ames

independence pursuit-of-happiness goal

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

age worry needs

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

destiny giving moving

I was aware that I was acting atrociously but I couldn't stop myself. Rarely had I behaved in such a manner. But I guess when we're feeling lonely in life, we attack those who actually do love us. It's one of the things that characterizes human nature and can be summed up in one word: FLAWED.

Jonathan Ames

acting lonely feelings

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

goal writing giving

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

Jonathan Ames

young-writers suffering young

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

Jonathan Ames

landscape action writing

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

Jonathan Ames

athlete player children

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.

Jonathan Ames

goal writing giving

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

caviar teeth mean

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

Jonathan Ames

rumor worst source

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

games adventure children

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

Jonathan Ames

writing

How terrible to be alcoholic. You just want to quietly soothe and maybe poison yourself, but you end up poisoning those around you as well, like trying to commit suicide with a gas oven and unwittingly murdering your neighbors.

Jonathan Ames

poison suicide trying

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

cliffs recognise fall

Don't hold me to anything in the book. I'm a waffler. I like wafflers. They said John Kerry was a waffler, but I admired him for that - showed he could change his mind.

Jonathan Ames

mind said book

I'm on the verge of a total breakdown. Sciatica. Taxes. Cars. Fleas, possibly. It's an absurd existence.

Jonathan Ames

fleas absurd car