Latest Jonathan Ames Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• 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

  Pursuit Of Happiness, Goal, Independence

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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

  Writing, Giving, Goal

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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.

  Jonathan Ames

  Teacher, Good Life, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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

  Writing, Giving, Goal

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I certainly want to portray the importance of friendship. I had noticed in movies and TV shows that friends often treated one another terribly, and my friends, the few I have, are never cruel to me or unkind, so I wanted to convey that.

  Jonathan Ames

  Importance, Unkind

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• In fact, I have no hobbies. The only thing I like to do in life is to go to the Russian Baths in Manhattan. I also like to watch sports on TV, and I like to read books. So that's it - Russian Baths, sports, and books.

  Jonathan Ames

  Sports, Book

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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.

  Jonathan Ames

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't like rides. I take everything in life quite literally, and so I genuinely feel terrified on rides and liable to vomit at any moment, and I hate to vomit even more than I fear rides. So, all this to say, I don't have a favorite ride. I don't go on rides. Well, that's not true. A few years ago I had a beautiful, romantic moment on the Ferris wheel at Coney Island, known as the Wonder Wheel, and so I guess that's my favorite ride, though even that, to be frank, terrified me.

  Jonathan Ames

  Beautiful, Hate, Wonder

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It seems like the original 'Star Trek' could have gone on longer.

  Jonathan Ames

  Stars, Gone, Original Star Trek

  "Producers Impact Report 2016", variety.com. 2016.

• I wish we had a dog in the show so that I could get to be a dog for a day.

  Jonathan Ames

  Dog, Wish, Shows

  "Producers Impact Report 2016". Variety's annual report of showrunners who made an impact on the 2015-16 TV season, variety.com. August 2, 2016.

• I always liked those characters in 'True Blood' who could turn into animals. I'd love to be an animal of some kind and run quickly through a forest.

  Jonathan Ames

  Running, Character, Animal

  "Producers Impact Report 2016", variety.com. 2016.

• Maybe my work isn't a cry for help. It may just be a baby's need to cry or a dog's need to bark. You know, barks that seem connected to phantom noises and cries that just come; though a baby's cries are usually efficient - something is bothering them. Anyway, I think giving money is a sign of love. If you truly want to help someone, a lot of times giving them money is the best thing you can do.

  Jonathan Ames

  Baby, Dog, Thinking

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• From age 23 to 44 - I'm 45 now - I was always in need of money, and I was especially in need of it from 23 to about 34, and my great aunt would always give me money, a hundred bucks, every two months or so, and a lot of times that hundred bucks made a huge difference - I could eat or pay a small bill. It kept me going. She gave me money. It was very loving.

  Jonathan Ames

  Aunt, Two, Differences

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• 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.

  Jonathan Ames

  Hate, Love Is, Sick

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• A lot of readers have actually helped me, been really sweet to me... So maybe my cry for help has sometimes been answered.

  Jonathan Ames

  Sweet, Helping, Sometimes

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• No one I interact with - except maybe for family and strangers at the Russian baths and other weird places I may go to - is just friends or lovers with me: they also know something of my writing and this distorts their take on me.

  Jonathan Ames

  Writing, Just Friends, May

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• 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

  Book, Mind, Said

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• I'm also not sure that I look up to others as knowing what the hell is going on, except maybe Andre Agassi, who, when I interviewed him, while covering the U.S. Open, seemed to know what was going on. My basic assumption is that we're all confused all the time. Some people do act more confident, though. Maybe they aren't confused. I am. I'm confused.

  Jonathan Ames

  Confused, Knowing, People

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• The real self and the public self are intertwined, like a tumor around an organ, and you can't cut the tumor or you'll kill the organ, so they live together, until the tumor chokes the organ off - but which self is the tumor?. Or it's like something out of Star Trek. The Borg.

  Jonathan Ames

  Stars, Real, Cutting

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• One last thing on objectives - I like to make things, create things, so that's probably been the primary objective all along, even before the ego objective - to make. To record. But why record... that gets back to the ego, a little. Oh, well. Making is good. I like to make things.

  Jonathan Ames

  Ego, Records, Littles

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• The work changes the way your face changes and ages - it just does. Also, I have very little connection to anything I've written. I move on. We all move on

  Jonathan Ames

  Moving, Age, Connections

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• 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.

  Jonathan Ames

  Wise, Writing, Kind

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• Then again, the name, the associations with a writer's name, can add to the reader's entertainment and pleasure.

  Jonathan Ames

  Names, Add, Association

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.

• 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

  Art, Self, Names

  "The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames". Interview with Joshua Furst, therumpus.net. July 29, 2009.