I think Jorge Borges said that when Argentineans die they turn into angels and go and live in Uruguay. But for the rest of South America, you have to say that it's getting there - becoming civilized - and will get there. It's had a real grit war in history. The choice between those societies until recently was the choice between tyranny and chaos. Everyone understood that. You've got to have a strong man, or it's going to be a mess.
Martin AmisThe children of the nuclear age, I think, were weakened in their capacity to love. Hard to love, when you're bracing yourself for impact. Hard to love, when the loved one, and the lover, might at any instant become blood and flames, along with everybody else.
Martin AmisYour purpose when driving is not to arrive at your destination safely or quickly. Your purpose when driving is...to impress your personality on the road.
Martin AmisLove is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black.
Martin AmisYou know, I wouldnโt have done this a month ago. I wouldnโt have done it then. Then I was avoiding. Now Iโm just waiting. Things happen to me. They do. They have to go ahead and happen. You watch โ you waitโฆ Things still happen here and something is waiting to happen to me. I can tell. Recently my life feels like a bloodcurdling joke. Recently my life has taken on *form* Something is waiting. I am waiting. Soon, it will stop waiting โ any day now. Awful things can happen any time. This is the awful thing.
Martin AmisFor both of us, I think, it had to do with our weakened power to love. It is strange that enslavement should have that effect โ not just the fantastic degradation, not just the fear and the boredom and all the rest, but also the layered injustice, the silent injustice. So all right. Weโre back where we started. To you, nothing โ from you, everything. They took it from me, it seems, for no reason, other than that I value it so much.
Martin Amis