Jonathan Ames

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

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.

Something has happened where you almost never grow up in America. Maybe it's the greater wealth.

I'm a somewhat isolated person in my own way, or I move along a little trail, I go this place, I go that place. It's not like I'm varying my exposure.

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

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.

For me, the past is dead. Can't go back.

A lot of writers, probably because they're sensitive, which makes them want to be writers, have fears about their masculinity, so they overcompensate by having an interest in boxing and tough-guy things.

I don't mind being ridiculed - well, I guess I would mind a little, but it would only last a few minutes - it's all very ephemeral; it doesn't really matter what people think of me.

I've always been inspired by Don Quixote as a role model of sorts, of the power of books to sort of make you insane in maybe a beautiful way.

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone. Perhaps if I was depressed and isolated, just communicating with these authors through their sentences helped me.

I don't like to publicly acknowledge being a Jew.