British novelist Martin Amis on literature as a “war against cliches:”

“Whenever you write, ‘The heat is stifling,’ or ‘She rummaged in her handbag,’ this is dead freight. People who use these moldering novelties like ‘Seen it, done it,’ ‘Got the T-shirt,’ ‘He went ballistic,’ ‘I don’t think so,’ ‘Hello!’–these are dead words. They’re heard words.”

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