English novelist, poet & critic (1922-1995)
It is not extraordinary that the extraterrestrial origin of women was a recurrent theme of science fiction.
KINGSLEY AMIS
The King's English: A Guide to Modern English Usage
Death has this much to be said for it:
You don't have to get out of bed for it.
KINGSLEY AMIS
"Delivery Guaranteed", Collected Poems
Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way.
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Lucky Jim
He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did not attend was Catholic.
KINGSLEY AMIS
One Fat Englishman
Doing what you wanted to do was the only training, and the only preliminary, needed for doing more of what you wanted to do.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Lucky Jim
There was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Lucky Jim
With the Gaelic coffee, surmounted by half an inch or so of chilled cream, he felt his survival till breakfast guaranteed.
KINGSLEY AMIS
One Fat Englishman
Those who professed themselves unable to believe in the reality of human progress ought to cheer themselves up, as the students under examination had conceivably been cheered up, by a short study of the Middle Ages. The hydrogen bomb, the South African Government, Chioang Kaidick, Senator McCarthy himself, would then seem a light price to pay for no longer being in the Middle Ages.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Lucky Jim
It was no wonder that people were so horrible when they started life as children.
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One Fat Englishman
I've been trying to write for as long as I can remember. But those first fifteen years didn't produce much of great interest. I mean, it embarrasses me very much to look back on my early poems--very few lines of any merit at all and lots of affectation. But there were quite a lot of them. That's a point in one's favor.
KINGSLEY AMIS
The Paris Review, winter 1975
Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in.
KINGSLEY AMIS
One Fat Englishman
Sex is a momentary itch, love never lets you go.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Collected Poems
His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum.
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Lucky Jim
The rewards for being sane may not be very many, but knowing what's funny is one of them.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Stanley and the Women
The human race has not devised any way of dissolving barriers, getting to know the other chap fast, breaking the ice, that is one-tenth as handy and efficient as letting you and the other chap, or chaps, cease to be totally sober at about the same rate in agreeable surroundings.
KINGSLEY AMIS
Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis
The Scandinavians are dear people but they've never been what you might call bywords for wit and sparkle, have they?
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One Fat Englishman
If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.
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Lucky Jim
It's never pleasant to have one's unquestioning beliefs put in their historical context, as I know from experience, I can assure you.
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The Green Man
I once wrote deduceable instead of deducible in a book, though nobody then or since has taken me up on it. A small point as they go, perhaps, but Rule I of writing acceptably is to get everything right as far as you can, and in this case I had neglected to.
KINGSLEY AMIS
The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage
It's a letdown if the comedian doesn't finally actually really sit on his hat.
KINGSLEY AMIS
The Paris Review, winter 1975