Gene Fowler Quotes

Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish.

I shall be so brief that I have already finished.

There's been so many different types of musicals, and it's a funny genre because there's a fine line between clever and stupid. It really takes a genius to know how to do it.

I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It's usually funnier that way, anyway.

Dali had a good sense of humor - obviously you could tell just looking at him; he was funny.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

A pin has as much head as some authors and a good deal more point.

I like the irony in my work.

I'm not a good joke teller.

People are clever, but almost no one ever devises an optimal quip precisely at the needed moment. Therefore, virtually all great one-liners are later inventions - words that people wished they had spouted, but failed to manufacture at the truly opportune instant.

A pun, though despicable in itself, can be the noblest vehicle of an artistic intention by serving as the abbreviation of a wittyview. It can be a social criticism in the form of an epigram.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

The shortest distance between two jokes makes a perfect speech.

[S]ince brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

Unlike my subject will I frame my song, It shall be witty and it shan't be long.

Tea? At the beach? No time for luxuries, Holly. There is important work to be done.” He winked at Butler. “Are you sure you’re at the library? I thought I heard water.” Artemis smiled, enjoying the exchange. “Water? Surely not. The only thing flowing here is information.” “Are you grinning, Artemis? For some reason I get the feeling that you’re wearing that smug smile of yours.

There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

I feel like humor is a part of life. I don't think it comes through as much in the novels as it does in my head.

A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding forever.

If you aren't cute, you may as well be clever.

Well," he said, "f’r example, if they ask where you’ve come from, you could say ‘Behind me,’and if they asked where you’re going, you’d say ‘In front of me.

The wittiest authors evoke a barely perceptible smile.

Style and taste do not have anything to do with the other. It's the difference between wit and humor.

I saw the movie, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and was surprised because I didn't see any tigers or dragons. And then I realized why: they're crouching and hidden.

I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.