I never felt that I belonged in the literary scene of New York. That whole “brat pack” thing—Jay McInerney and Tama Janowitz… was a myth. It never existed. I hung out with my own friends who were my age.
The publishing scene got too claustrophobic, too cliquey, too irritating. I was tired of hearing people complain about the size of other people’s advances… who got an excerpt of their forthcoming novel in The New Yorker and who didn’t… who got their story published in The Paris Review… I was tired of all the gossip and of watching people suck up to editors and agents and writers because they felt they had to stay connected.
The general snootiness about [Jonathan] Franzen’s success that you could smell wafting off the literary scene grossed me out and became indicative of something ominous to me.
I just couldn’t put up with the pettiness of it all anymore. I didn’t want to have cocktails in the lobby of [MoMA] and… listen to writers give speeches. I didn’t want to go to another book party at Pravda… I found myself thinking more often than not when I’d receive an invitation, I’d rather cut my head off with a knife.”
American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis, he of the “indeterminate sexuality,” in Paris Review
Source: New York Post, via Mark Coggins
dee-dee
Oh dear. How horrible. I feel his pain.
MORON. Try living in the real world.
ChristopherM
If I were him, I wouldn’t want to go listen to people with actual writing talent either.
Keppler
“I found myself thinking more often than not when I’d receive an invitation, I’d rather cut my head off with a knife.”
Please do. Do it today. Then we won’t have to listen to any more of your pointless whining.
Aric
Complains about people who get their stuff in the Paris Review
Says so, in the Paris Review
Hmmm, Socially Awkward Penguin Meme, or just make a new one?
Little-Kiwi
Dear Ellis, it’s not the fault of anyone else that your writing style gives evidence to your own misery.
You’re no Ethan Mordden.
CBRad
Even though he’s a lousy writer himself, I do agree with him about the annoying little cliques and “brat packs” that come about in the NYC literary “scene”. But that’s always been.
walt zipprian
I saw what you did there Little Kiwi.
still Not in Kansas Anymore.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
i quite admire him. he’s an irredeemably awful misanthrope. only *that* mind could’ve created the exuberantly hateful comic horror of american psycho.
never bought his books, but have stolen them off the interweb. i feel patrick bateman would approve.
The Real Mike in Asheville
@ChristopherM: Very droll — thanks for the hearty laugh!
James
Of course the whole 80s brat pack of writers was made up and a media creation. Out of all of them Ellis is the most talented and most successful.