Elie Wiesel Quotes

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

I think a good dollop of sadness is quite a useful thing in comedy sometimes. I think if everyone's happy all the time, it's a bit dull. It's like salt and caramel - you wouldn't imagine they would go well together, but they do.

That's what sort of fascinates me - what's funny as well as what's sad.

There is something irresistibly funny about a funeral. More basically, I think the point is that beyond the deepest tragedy, there is laughter. Even in the midst of tragedy, there is always the possibility for it.

Look at Sam Beckett. Most depressed man who ever lived, but he sure was funny.

Comedy is tragedy revisited.

Bert Williams was the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.

Comedy, I imagine, is harder to do consistently than tragedy, but I like it spiced in the wine of sadness.

I think it's almost easier to make people cry than to make people laugh.

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.

There's only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there's no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

I just heard a very funny story about somebody who died yesterday, I'm sorry to say so but it was so absurd that you can't help laughing. And the person that was concerned about that story was laughing too.

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time.

I think that sometimes only comedians can reach the peaks of tragedy.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world.

It's great extremes which leads to great drama and great comedy.

Half of me is this wacked-out comedienne who will do anything for a buck and a laugh. Well, at least for a laugh. But the other half is a lot darker, sadder and more pensive. It's the dark side that feeds the outrageousness and allows it to surface. I think that's true for anyone with comic flair.

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.

I have always felt comedy and tragedy are roommates. If you look up comedy and tragedy, you will find a very old picture of two masks. One mask is tragedy. It looks like it's crying. The other mask is comedy. It looks like it's laughing. Nowadays, we would say, 'How tasteless and insensitive. A comedy mask is laughing at a tragedy mask.'

We may smile at these matters, but they are melancholy illustrations.

There's obviously a lot of tragedy in comedy; I really enjoy the paradox of what a really good comedy is.

Life is dramatic and comedic at times. Sometimes in the most dramatic situations, there is comedy. And good comedy comes from a sense of reality.

It's both funny and sad which seem to me to be the two basic ingredients of good comedy.