Mark Leyner Quotes & Sayings

“My work generally tends to be an all-out, 360-degree subversive take on everything, most of all my own notion of myself as a son, father, husband, human being and male in this culture.”

“I don't walk around chuckling all the time. My outlook is very bleak. It's worse than bleak, it's apocalyptic.”

“I thought of myself as kind of an anarchist all my whole adult life, from the days when I was 15 or 16.”

“The interesting thing about something in the back of your mind is that it can travel pretty far back in your mind.”

“I always thought of my work as being animated by a spirit of unhinged generosity.”

“My relationship with my readers is somewhat theatrical. One of the main things I try to do in my work is delight my readers.”

“As far as what I do, my value as a writer is certainly not to try to recapitulate a 19th century form. Certain styles of narrative don't conform to my style of experiencing the world.”

“I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.”

“When I started, I wanted to be thought of as tortured and seductive, not funny, but humor tends to be a reflexive part of a person's sensibility. It's an almost impossible thing to teach anyone, which leads me to believe that it's intuitive.”

“I can tell from about 20 yards away when someone has a manuscript for me. I can just tell - they have that look.”