Jennifer Egan Quotes

If you're satirizing something, you're hitting at something that's real and true, and putting it on its head, and we did that with 'Tropic Thunder.'

From the start, I've always admired Eminem's thinking. That's the reason I wanted to appear on the Grammys with him when I was asked. Eminem has the balls to say what he feels and to make offensive things funny. That's very necessary today in America, with people being muzzled and irony becoming a lost art. Artists like Eminem who use their free speech to get a point across are vitally important. There just aren't many people in the world with balls that big and talent that awesome.

Agnes was the worst prophet that's ever existed. Because she was always right. That's why the book never sold.

It's just easier to make fun and cut down. It's kind of a way of life in America. If you can make people want to hear what you're going to say, it can be cruel and funny.

I love Larry David's take on things in 'Seinfeld', which is that you shouldn't try to help people because it'll always put you into new situations which are unpleasant.

I thought that through the strip, I could vent my spleen and be funny at the same time. But when it comes to humor, there's no substitute for reality and politicians.

And I think comedy obviously a great way to get a message out because you know the reason why things are funny is because they're true.

Comedy's the ultimate pill that helps the really hard truths and hard facts go down, right?

People say the comedy is so shocking, but if you read newspapers or look around generally - I mean, obviously I'm not writing about all the lovely things that there are, which I do see as well - but there is a lot of outrageousness around, slightly covered up. And obviously, it's fun to take that a little bit further.

The truth, the real history, is way more interesting and representative of what America actually is.

The definition of comedy is 'unsafe space' - you can't control what people laugh at.

As a comedian, I am attracted to truths that are uncomfortable. I like funny bummers.

Sometimes, I use humor because I believe in revealing truth in a way that other forms cannot.

When you're laughing aloud at David Sedaris' every sentence, it's easy to miss the more serious side of what he's up to.

The whole point of real comedy is that you can say something that is true, and by being funny, you can make it tolerable for people, and hopefully they'll laugh at you, too.

Politics is a thing that is kind of the same over and over and over again. But we have to find new ways of poking fun at it and letting the air out of people and satirizing things that are worthy of satire.

The mark of a really great satire is its ability to seem prophetic, and I think that the television culture that film predicted really came true in the age of reality television and is a testament to how great it really is.

It's a challenge to do satire when the thing you're satirizing is almost beyond satire, but I think that's a challenge for everybody.

Most humor comes from truth. In the end, if I can laugh about it, who cares?

satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

A joke is a joke or the image of a truth.

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right. I shall not please, but I shall say what is true.

America is one long expectoration.

I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth.