Arse-Scratching Amis A Non-Acerbic Tutor?

Martin Amis, long dubbed 'the bad boy of British fiction' is to take up a post teaching creative writing at Manchester University reports Alexandar Topping in the Guardian. He promises not to be unkind to his students:

I may be acerbic in how I write but I'm not how I live. And I would find it very difficult to say cruel things to people in such a vulnerable position. I imagine I'll be surprisingly sweet and gentle with them. One of the things I've learned about fiction - you really do lay yourself open in a way that no other so-called creative artist does. Most other art you're just exhibiting a particular talent, even poetry up to a point, but by writing fiction you expose not only your talent but your whole being, your social, sexual and psychological being and you're never more vulnerable than when you do that, and I'm well aware of that fact and will take it into account.

And he has this to say about the so-called glamour of being a writer:

Well, it is a sort of sedentary, carpet slippers, self-inspecting, nose-picking, arse-scratching kind of job, just you in your study and there is absolutely no way round that.

Update

More Martin Amis in the Sunday Times and you can listen to him talk about his latest book The House of Meetings on WYNC.

Pic nicked from the Guardian.