Robert Motherwell Quotes

I try to find humor in everything I do, because I think all great plays - even great tragedies - have enormous humor in them.

Life is tragic comedy, in a way. There is humor.

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.

There's obviously a lot of tragedy in comedy; I really enjoy the paradox of what a really good comedy is.

I think that there's a fine line between comedy and drama.

It's both funny and sad which seem to me to be the two basic ingredients of good comedy.

Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.

I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

If you stretch tragedy, it will always become comedy.

For me comedy and violence has a lot in common. Just as you expect, comedy always lurks behind the most unexpected of circumstances.

You never have a comedian who hasn't got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy.

Dying is easy; comedy is hard.

Comedy is only funny when there's real pain.

There is nothing that is so serious that you can't also see its comic side. Comedy is a way of talking about the most serious things.

I think a good dollop of sadness is quite a useful thing in comedy sometimes. I think if everyone's happy all the time, it's a bit dull. It's like salt and caramel - you wouldn't imagine they would go well together, but they do.

That's what sort of fascinates me - what's funny as well as what's sad.

Comedy is deep and wild and I am excited about the mysteries within.

Comedy is tragedy revisited.

It's great extremes which leads to great drama and great comedy.

Many of my poems try to use a comic element to reach a place that isn't comic at all. The comic element works as a surprise. It is unexpected and energizing.

I don't think it's a contradiction to find painfulness funny.

I'm not a great joke writer, which is odd for a comic to say, but I'm not.

For me, comedy is richer and larger than anything else.

When you take a character seriously, there's more room for comedy because you're not aware of how absurd you are.

A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it.