Humorists can never start to take themselves seriously. It's literary suicide.
The satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive and eventually releases him again for another chance.
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
You've got to be (an) optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one
There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists.
It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you.
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.
But I'm a humorist. I'm not a reporter, I never pretended to be a reporter.
It is the will of God that we must have critics and missionaries and congressmen and humorists, and we must bear the burden
This is not an easy time for humorists because the government is far funnier than we are.
Humorists of the 'mere' sort cannot survive. Humor is only a fragrance, a decoration.
HUMORIST, n. A plague that would have softened down the hoar austerity of Pharaoh's heart and persuaded him to dismiss Israel with his best wishes, cat-quick.
HOMŒOPATHIST, n. The humorist of the medical profession.
A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it.
Wit - the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.
I think that all comics or humorists, or whatever we are, ask questions. That's what we're supposed to do. But I not only ask the questions, I offer solutions.
To say that a humorist exaggerates to get big laughs, I don't see how that's big news.
or simply: