Humorists Quotes - Page 7

• Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.

  William Zinsser

  Trying, Routine, Today

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• In this land of unlimited opportunity, a place where, to paraphrase Woody Allen, any man or woman can realize greatness as a patient or as a doctor, we have only one commercial American filmmaker who consistently speaks with his own voice. That is Woody Allen, gag writer, musician, humorist, philosopher, playwright, stand-up comic, film star, film writer and film director.

  Vincent Canby

  Stars, Opportunity, Greatness

  The New York Times, July 17, 1983.

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• I did not intend to write a funny book, at first. I did not know I was a humorist. I have never been sure about it. In the middle ages, I should probably have gone about preaching and got myself burnt or hanged.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Book, Writing, Age

  Jerome K. Jerome (2010). “Three Men in a Boat”, p.6, Giunti Editore

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• How will I be remembered? As a technician or artist? As a humorist or a visionary?

  Norman Rockwell

  Artist, Visionaries, Remembered

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• I go in for what is known in the trade as 'light writing' and those who do that - humorists they are sometimes called - are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Writing, Light, Sometimes

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• A heartwarming tale of Christmas past that's chock full of all the wit and hilarity we admire in America's favorite humorist--Mark Twain. Carlo DeVito brings us back one hundred years to a magical time in Twain's family life, revealing a house that's brimming with love and laughter, as well as the profound heartbreaks of life. A Mark Twain Christmas only deepens our understanding and respect for both the man and his work.

  Gilbert King

  Laughter, Past, Men

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• I'm a classic example of all humorists - only funny when I'm working.

  Peter Sellers

  Example, Classic

  "I Am Your Father: What Every Heart Needs to Know". Book by Mark Stibbe, 2010.

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• The American humorist sat on his couch suffering thoughts of her, trying to figure out how to win back her affections, wondering what had happened between them or just tumbling head-over-heels down into romantic oblivion where the image of a remembered kiss provokes bottomless despair and makes death seem like the right idea.He experienced the basics of love ended.

  Richard Brautigan

  Love, Kissing, Winning

  Richard Brautigan (1976). “Sombrero Fallout”, Simon & Schuster

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• I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.

  David Sedaris

  Writing, Tools, Use

  "David Sedaris: 'If you tell a funny story at the dinner table in front of 10 people, nine will laugh, and one will say: that's not true. I've always hated that person'". Interview With Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2009.

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• I've always been leery of comical artists because I think oftentimes they're hiding the fact that they're not that talented. For example, with Martin Kippenberger, I always thought he was a kind of poor man's Sigmar Polke - also a humorist - but Kippenberger used humor to get away with things he couldn't master.

  Diego Cortez

  Thinking, Artist, Kind

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The humorist who invented trial by jury played a colossal practical joke upon the world, but since we have the system we ought to try and respect it. A thing which is not thoroughly easy to do, when we reflect that by command of the law a criminal juror must be an intellectual vacuum, attached to a melting heart and perfectly macaronian bowels of compassion.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humorous, Heart

  Mark Twain (1992). “Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890”, p.725, Library of America

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• HOMŒOPATHIST, n. The humorist of the medical profession.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Medical Profession, Humour

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.663, Library of America

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• Think of what would happen to us... if there were no humorists; life would be one long Congressional Record.

  Thomas Lansing Masson

  Thinking, Long, Would Be

  Thomas Lansing Masson (1922). “Our American Humorists”

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• A humorist tells himself every morning, "I hope it's going to be a rough day." When things are going well, it's much harder to make the right jokes.

  Alan Coren

  Morning, Rough Day, Harder

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• Humor is really one of the hardest things to define, very hard. And it's very ambiguous. You have it or you don't. You can't attain it. There are terrible forms of professional humor, the humorists' humor. That can be awful. It depresses me because it is artificial. You can't always be humorous, but a professional humorist must. That is a sad phenomenon.

  Heinrich Böll

  Depressing, Humorous, Awful

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• I'm not a comic. I'm a humorist.

  Dick Gregory

  Comic

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• First, I was an idealist (that was early - fools are born, not made, you know); next I was a realist; now I am a pessimist, and, by Jove! if things get much worse I'll become a humorist.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Next, Fool, Firsts

  Ellen Glasgow (1900). “The Descendant”

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• There are very few humorists who have written first-rate humor after they've become elderly.

  Richard Armour

  Elderly, Age, Firsts

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• Humorists are not humorous twenty-four hours a day. In fact, when you get to know them well, they are often not humorous at all. They tend to be hypersensitive, taut, neurotic creatures driven by God know what obscure compulsion to earn their living the hard way.

  Margaret Halsey

  Humorous, Four, Way

  Margaret Halsey (1946). “Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro”

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• To say that a humorist exaggerates to get big laughs, I don't see how that's big news.

  David Sedaris

  Laughing, News, Bigs

  Interview with Tony DuShane, www.motherjones.com. July/August 2008.

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• It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden. Meantime, I seem to have been drifting into criticism myself. But that is nothing. At the worst, criticism is nothing more than a crime, and I am not unused to that.

  Mark Twain

  Criticism, Bears, Crime

  Mark Twain, Harriet Elinor Smith (2012). “Autobiography of Mark Twain: Reader's Edition”, p.201, Univ of California Press

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• As the tragic writer rids us of what is petty and ignoble in our nature, so also the humorist rids us of what is cautious, calculating, and priggish--about half of our social conscience, indeed. Both of them permit us, in blessed moments of revelation, to soar above the common level of our lives.

  Robertson Davies

  Blessed, Tragedy, Half

  Robertson Davies (1961). “The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose”, London : Secker & Warburg

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• PANTALOONS, n. A nether habiliment of the adult civilized male. The garment is tubular and unprovided with hinges at the points of flexion. Supposed to have been invented by a humorist. Called trousers by the enlightened and pants by the unworthy.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Adults, Males, Pants

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.91, Courier Corporation

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• Humorists are always pessimists. They're reactionaries: because they see that every golden cloud has a black lining.

  Christina Stead

  Clouds, Black, Golden

  Christina Stead (2012). “I'm Dying Laughing: The Humourist”, p.28, Open Road Media

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• I learned as a young man that I don't write jokes, but that I can deliver more mundane material and get a laugh. I call myself a humorist.

  Nick Offerman

  Writing, Men, Laughing

  "The GQA: Nick Offerman". Interview with GQ, www.gq.com. July 3, 2012.

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