Louise Erdrich Quotes

When I was growing up, I was obviously gay, and I got heckled every day of my life. The only way I knew how to survive was to make people laugh. If I could make them laugh, I wouldn't get hung in a locker for two hours. That's a blessing.

You've got to have a sense of humor to keep your sanity.

Laughter, and the broader category of humor, are key elements in helping us go on with our life after a loss.

And I definitely gravitate toward people who use laughter to pull themselves out of the abyss.

I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.

Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me - just in the sense that it has allowed me to keep my sanity.

Humor is not a sign of weakness. In fact, humor can be your greatest asset in the face of tragedy.

People always ask me how I manage to find humor in so much bleakness. I think this is almost a necessary skill to have.

If I can make myself laugh about something that I should be crying about, that's pretty good.

A sense of humor is the main measure of sanity.

And if you're lucky enough to survive going crazy and get back to the point where you can pass for normal, it builds a question into the rest of your life. You have to forgive people for wondering, 'How all right can he be?'

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.

Look at the people who are kind of the funniest cultures, they're the cultures of the people who have been the most oppressed, black people and Jews. Not that they're the only funny people, but culturally, it comes from the pain, you know?

After 9/11, I was like many people in New York City and got a little depressed. I began to check myself into The Waldorf Astoria for room service, movies and just to chill. I wanted to contribute to the great city of Manhattan.

Frankly, goin' crazy was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't say it's for everybody; some people couldn't cope.

He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.

Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.

Maintaining self-respect in the face of a devastating experience is of prime importance.

I try to laugh at whatever life brings.

Humor is a marvelous communications tool, as Reagan has demonstrated so well. He has weathered many a storm that others might not have. With Reagan, people just say, 'There he goes again.' A sense of humor allows a president to back off a little from the tensions of the moment and take a calmer view of things.

Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles--they kept reality from paralyzing you

Humor is an amazing way to talk people down off a ledge.

I've been writing jokes since I'm fifteen. Not out of happiness, but to go to a different place, because reality wasn't good to me.

If you don't laugh, you're going to cry and people are crying. That's why I guess you have lots of people like comedians to keep us laughing.

Your humor is your compass and your shield. You can hone it into a weapon or you can pull its strands out to make your very own cotton-candy blanket. You can’t exist on a diet of humor alone, but you can’t exist on a diet without it, either.