John Updike Quotes

But our comedies never endured long without a tragedy.

I think that sometimes only comedians can reach the peaks of tragedy.

The difference between tragedy and comedy: Tragedy is something awful happening to somebody else, while comedy is something awful happening to somebody else.

Why do we laugh at such terrible things? Because comedy is often the sarcastic realization of inescapable tragedy.

Avoiding humiliation is the core of tragedy and comedy.

Tragedy without comedy is melodrama, and comedy without a higher purpose is vacant.

As comedy presents the vital rhythm of self-preservation, tragedy exhibits that of self-consummation.

Comedy defends the commonplace; tragedy explodes it.

The popular definition of tragedy is heavy drama in which everyone is killed in the last act, comedy being light drama in which everyone is married in the last act.

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.

Tragedy and comedy are simply questions of value; a little misfit in life makes us laugh; a great one is tragedy and cause for expression of grief.

I trained in Shakespeare, and that's all comedy, even when it's tragedy.

I like the tragedies way more than the comedies because they're so universal.

I think a joke is a form of truth-telling. A good joke that's absurd contains elements of our daily darkness and also a possibility to escape that darkness. So, for me, humor is an attempt to capture everyday tragedy and everyday hopeful moments that we experience all of the time.

Tragedy is the oldest form of theatre.

You think that their dying is the worst thing that could happen. Then they stay dead.

I actually feel that all drama has an element of comedy in it. A great deal of that I learned from writers like Chekhov who called his plays his comedy even when they touch on tragedy.

Black Tragedy lets slip her grim disguise and shows you laughing lips and roguish eyes; but when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears, how wan her cheeks are, and what heavy tears!

Above all else, tragedy requires the finest appreciation by the writer of cause and effect.

Humor is tragedy plus time.

In movies, comedy and tragedy are all the same.

I never wish death on nobody, cause there ain't coming back from that.

I naturally think in terms of comedy whenever I see anything because tragedy is so close to comedy, so I like to add the tragedy to the comedy or a little bit of comedy to the tragedy in order to make them both feel more real to me.

I think Georges Feydeau said comedy is just tragedy speeded up.

Human comedy is more profound than tragedy. In tragedy we die and it is very sad. In comedy we avoid death, and it is even sadder.