Steven Wright Quotes

I wanted to see how funny I could be without making the choice that every 10 minutes something big and visual had to happen.

If I think something's funny, I try to mold it into a joke as soon as possible. Once I have a joke, I say it a million different ways on stage until I find a rhythm and it feels like it's as good as it can be.

I've always been terrible on regular sitcoms with lots of jokes. I don't know how to tell jokes.

You can give a guy a funny line, but you can't make him say it funny.

For comedy, timing is key.

I'm not good at telling a joke, but I can say a line in a certain way that makes people uncomfortable because they don't know whether to laugh or not, and I love that comedy.

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.

Silences are the most underrated part of comedy.

The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.

I was the kid who always hung back and then dropped the jokes when you least expected it. Timing was everything. My mouth sort of developed over time.

I know what's funny, and I probably know the best way to deliver the joke. Whether it's walking out of a room, facing that way, facing this way. I just have a sense of that.

With silly stuff, it's seventy-five percent confidence. I always tell people that it's because I'm nervous about getting that next laugh and I need to hear it. I always want to condense a joke.

I think so. I can't think of anything that requires more finesse than comedy, both from a verbal and visual point of view.

Soon I learned that the worse the puns and jokes, the funnier they could be, if you knew how to deliver them.

Comedy is the most difficult. Comic timing is something which you either have it in you, or you don't. You have to have a good sense of humour to be able to understand it. A split second can make you lose the punch.

You learn what can become a good joke and can be repeatable. You have a shorthand about how to introduce a joke to someone.

Comedy is all about the pause.

I hate to give myself credit for anything, but I will say I really enjoy, as an actor, and especially with comedy stuff, playing with different rhythms and with different ways around a joke. There's always an obvious route, and there's one that maybe is a little bit different.

Comedy is one of the toughest genres. It is so essential to get the timing right, failing which the humour can fall flat.

The great thing about writing jokes for President Obama is that he is not afraid to tell jokes that are actually funny - and not just funny for a politician.

One joke coming from one person can land completely flat, while somebody else delivering it in a unique way can really elevate it.

I believe it is tough to be funny and tougher to make people laugh. And it needs to be been done effortlessly. A joke can be comedy, but one can kill the joke if it is delivered badly.

A joke is like building a mousetrap from scratch. You have to work pretty hard to make the thing snap when it is supposed to snap.

Comedy becomes intensified in short scenes.

As a comic, you try something and if it works you go with it and grind it to death.