Idries Shah Quotes

What was it that drew you back? My marvellous personality, I suppose? Or my sparkling conversation?

Friendly satire may be compared to a fine lancet, which gently breathes a vein for health's sake.

Comedy is brutal. It's powerful, though.

I write what I think is funny and I write from a sense of popping a balloon or a sense of injustice, whether it's about yourself, or whether it's about something else. It's my worldview; it doesn't mean that everybody has to agree with it.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

Comedy is all about having a point of view, and it's also about power.

The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.

It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you.

There's always been this tradition of satirizing these rich groups of people.

Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

What am I responsible for? Who am I responsible to? Everybody? How come when Archie Bunker nailed everybody, it was funny - but when I do it, it's not?

Social satire has been around since people have been around.

Jokes are grievances.

It's all been satirized for your protection.

Satire is fascinating stuff. It's deadly serious, and when politics begin to break down, there is a drift towards satire, because it's the only thing that makes any sense.

I never met a man I didn't like until I met Will Rogers.

Comedy is a great weapon of attack. It's not a great weapon of support.

I think comedians have a function in society, which is to make fun of our icons.

Rory Bremner I have no problem with; he is a satirist, and a very funny one, too.

I've spent my entire career being a satirist.

If you're going to get into social criticism with absurdity and satire, you can't be politically correct when you do that.

Satire is a form of social control, it's what you do. It's not personal. It's a job.

Stand-up comedy and comedy in general is the ultimate form of free speech, because you get to poke holes in all the pretentious bubbles politicians and pundits and popes and pretenders try to float over our heads.

If you write satire, the guilty pleasure these days is that there's just so much material about. On the other hand, if you have a family it can be depressing.