The broadcaster and writer Stephen Fry today used his favourite medium, Twitter, to accuse the Observer of portraying him as "the antichrist" after it reported that he said women do not really like sex.

Fry's outburst came after an article quoted him as saying that straight women only go to bed with men "because sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship". In the comments, taken from an interview in the November edition of Attitude magazine, Fry also said: "If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas."

Fry used the microblogging site to denounce the article, suggesting comments he had made in jest had been misconstrued. "So some fucking paper misquotes a humorous interview I gave, which itself misquoted me, and now I'm the antichrist. I give up," he wrote. Just after his first response, he tweeted again, simply writing "Bye Bye" – prompting fears among his followers that he might quit Twitter. He has threatened to leave the site before, only to change his mind.

An Observer spokesperson said: "We have faithfully and fairly reproduced Stephen Fry's quotes in his interview with Attitude magazine. It fully and accurately reflects the opinions he expressed. He has no grounds for complaint against this newspaper."

The Observer described them as "uncharacteristically extreme" and "a marked break in tone from a man whose public shtick tends towards inoffensive charm and gently upmarket wit".

Fry, 53, said: "I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want."

His remarks on women's motivation for sex were criticised by the journalist and feminist Rosie Boycott, who said: "Women are just as capable as men are of enjoying sex".

Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude magazine, said tonight: "It was just a comment within a conversation about male sexuality, the kind that people have in pubs up and down the country, when people often straight men and women will assert the idea that gay men find it easier to find casual partners than straight people do. I'd be rich if I had £1 for every time a straight bloke has said they wished they could have casual sex as easily as (they presume) gay men do. Stephen Fry wasn't making any judgement about that, or saying it was a good or a bad thing, he was just pondering why that may be. It sounds harsh taken out of a long interview in which he talked about a multitude of other things."

Paul Flynn, the journalist who spoke to Fry, said he thought it was "quite an odd generalisation to make".

In October last year, Fry was inundated with fans begging him to reconsider when he said he was leaving Twitter after a fellow contributor described his posts as "boring".

Fry wrote back: "You've convinced me. I'm obviously not good enough. I retire from Twitter henceforward. Bye everyone."

The tweeter apologised and Fry rapidly resumed tweeting