Anthony Burgess Quotes

A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings.

The interesting thing about humor is that in humor, you - in logic, something is A or not A. In humor, it's both A and not A.

It can't be Nature, for it is not sense.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

No sense makes sense.

Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.

All phenomena are real in some sense, unreal in some sense, meaningless in some sense, real and meaningless in some sense, unreal and meaningless in some sense, and real and unreal and meaningless in some sense.

Most of the time, when someone tells you something, and it makes sense, it just makes sense. And that's that. But sometimes it really doesn't make sense.

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

No sense in no sense innocence of what of not and what of delight. In no sense innocence in no sense and what in delight and not, in no sense innocence in no sense no sense what, in no sense and delight, and in no sense and delight and not in no sense and delight and not, no sense in no sense innocence and delight.

I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer.

Everything is nothing, with a twist.

Perhaps there is more sense in our nonsense and more nonsense in our 'sense' than we would care to believe.

Good nonsense is good sense in disguise.

Irony is the word I forget the meaning of immediately after I look it up, but I kind of feel like I live in a constant state of it.

It serves the purpose of not serving a purpose, surely quite a valid one.

But he had hardly felt the absurdity of those things, on the one hand, and the necessity of those others, on the other, (for it is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity), when he felt the absurdity of those things of which he had just felt the necessity (for it is rare that the feeling of necessity is not followed by the feeling of absurdity.)

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

I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don't really need a distinction between them.

Irony is one of my favorite aspects of life.

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.

There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself.