Harper Lee Quotes

I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.

Personally I don't spend much time thinking about being funny. For me it's always been just a way to get by, a way to be likable yet to remain removed. When I speak up, it's not because I have any particular answers; rather, I have a desire to puncture the pretentiousness of those who seem so certain they do.

[Comedy] is an escape from illusions. The audience is...thinking, 'This bullshit we see and hear all day makes no sense.'

I think comedy's often the little and the large, isn't it?

I think laughter is the best medicine. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you can't laugh at life and the silliness of it all.

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.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.

I think you can tell the human condition better through comedy.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.

I consider myself to have a decent sense of humor. What's life without a sense of humor?

Comedy is the only hope for humanity.

I think comedy tells a lot; you can tell what people think by what they laugh at.

I laugh every day. There are days when my laughs are pretty hollow. Dust comes out of your mouth, and your bones make a funny sound. But I'm laughing.

Keep your sense of humor, my friend; if you don't have a sense of humor it just isn't funny anymore.

Comedy always pushes some buttons, because it wouldn't be comedy if it didn't.

When part of what you're trying to get at is the truth hidden under a taboo, or when you want to nail a hypocrisy, laughter is a very useful tool. I want to show the painful side of existence, but there is no question I also want to make people laugh.

Comedy is the most palliative way to make a point. People are more willing to listen if they can laugh.

The first purpose of comedy is to make people laugh. Anything deeper is a bonus. Some comedians want to make people laugh and make them think about socially relevant issues, but comedy, by the very nature of the word, is to make people laugh. If people aren't laughing, it's not comedy. It's as simple as that.

Most comedy comes out of misery.

Caricatures speak through visual language and are therefore understandable by all people. They trigger a laugh which is also an international language and reaction. Caricatures can decrease violence and converge cultures. They aim to promote peace, and teach us to be moderate and laugh at our problems.

I don't know if I realized that I was funny, but I realized how healing and important humor was in my childhood.

I think of everything as comedy, but I don't think of it in terms of sitcom comedy, I think of it in terms of Chekhov comedy. Chekhov called his plays comedies. There's always a mixture of a laugh with sadness. So the plie to the laugh is sadness.

Laughter is the best way to get over something or get closer to something. It's one of the things I respect most about Amy Schumer. She's found a way to get us closer to ourselves and see the ugly side of humanity, but not in a way that's pointing a finger or that's angry. She does it in a way that makes us see the absurdity and laugh at it.