Philip Roth Quotes

There's always been this tradition of satirizing these rich groups of people.

I've spent my entire career being a satirist.

If you're going to get into social criticism with absurdity and satire, you can't be politically correct when you do that.

It's an old Elizabethan idea. The fool is the only one who is allowed to make fun of the king because he is a fool. I can say whatever I want about anybody else because I'm just an idiot talking - I'm not insisting that I'm any smarter than anyone else. It's satire.

Comedy actually works best when you're living in an OK world, and you are pointing out the hypocrisy in apathy.

A lot of French comedy is satire.

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

Satire is tragedy plus time.

Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.

It's all been satirized for your protection.

Satire is fascinating stuff. It's deadly serious, and when politics begin to break down, there is a drift towards satire, because it's the only thing that makes any sense.

By the very nature of satire or parody, you have to love and respect your target and respect it enough to understand every aspect of it, so you can more effectively make fun of it.

And humor has always been a weapon. You want to get even on somebody? You want to attack somebody? Make fun of them.

Comedy is a great weapon of attack. It's not a great weapon of support.

But in terms of satire and comedy, our biggest and earliest influence was Mad magazine.

It is difficult not to write satire.

Satire also allows you to make fun of every different aspect. It allows you to make fun of both sides. It allows you to make fun of everything, really, so you can do it in a harmless way.

Caricature is rough truth.

I like to write a lot of satire.

Bad times for the Republic are great times for satire.

The best cartoons work by making fun of sacred cows, in trying to inflict the uncomfortable.

As satirists, we get to stand on the sidelines of life and comment on what's happening.

Satire can always be found everywhere. A people without love for satire is a dead people.