Peter De Vries Quotes

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

I'm a very serious person. Unfortunately, sometimes.

I said to myself, "If the government thinks I'm an artist, I must be one."

It is a curious fact, but a fact it is, that your witty people are the most hard-hearted in the world. The truth is, fancy destroys feeling. The quick eye to the ridiculous turns every thing to the absurd side; and the neat sentence, the lively allusion, and the odd simile, invest what they touch with something of their own buoyant nature. Humor is of the heart, and has its tears; but wit is of the head, and has only smiles - and the majority of those are bitter.

When comedy fails, seriousness begins to leak back in.

What is funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously.

Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn't normally.

Politics is much too serious to be taken too seriously; equally, there are many aspects of it so laughable as to be lamentable.

My instincts are not comedic.

Caution: These verses may be hazardous to your solemnity.

I'm kind of the antithesis of a comedian. People that don't like me will agree with that.

It would be terribly boring to be earnest.

Humorists can never start to take themselves seriously. It's literary suicide.

I never thought of myself as a comedian. That is a label - make me laugh. I want to make you think.

Things can be funny only when we are in fun. When we're 'dead earnest,' humor is the only thing that is dead.

Comedy is the difference between how you see a person and how they see themselves.

The majority of philosophers are totally humorless. That's part of their trouble.

Earnestness makes British people gag.

People tend to think I'm a lot more earnest than I am.

Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.

It's funny to be pigeonholed so late in life but there we are.

I'm not going to be remotely funny.

The funniest thing about some people is that they have no sense of humor.

Why is it so hard to be serious, so easy to be too serious?

I hate weddings,' she says. 'They make me feel so unmarried. Actually, even brushing my teeth makes me feel unmarried.