Guy Davenport Quotes

I'm just trying to portray what I find ironic or humorous.

I guess I don't have much interest in writing straight drama. So whatever subject matter I choose will ultimately be dealt with in a comic way.

I often joke that I could write 'War and Peace' and make it sound like Geri Halliwell wrote it.

Robert Benchley has a style that is weak and lies down frequently to rest.

I never write anything without humor, just because I like humor, but at the same time, it is a way for anything fantastical to become relatable.

I've always tended to write comedy, but I'd hate to just write some kind of sitcom or a lighthearted series of jokes and slapstick. I wanted to talk about some deeper things within the comedy.

Chekhov, when it's done well and you're ready for it, can actually be quite funny.

The world is a funny paper read backwards. And that way it isn't so funny.

Playing on stereotypes was meant to be humorous. If it doesn't tickle you in certain spots, it's not going to be funny. Falling down the stairs is a seriously dangerous thing, but watching it is HILARIOUS!

When you look at the average American you realize there's nothing nature enjoys more than a good joke.

The devil is not, indeed, perfectly humorous, but that is only because he is the extreme of all humor.

The wittiest authors evoke a barely perceptible smile.

I'm tongue in cheek, but very much to the point.

Humor is a way of saying we're all seeing the same ridiculous, absurd, infuriating things together.

I think I was born with a natural way of looking at something and trying to find the ways in which it was odd or funny, Even in the sad or angry stuff, I was, 'Well, but where is the funny part of this?'

We have a need to make people laugh at things they'd never thought about, make them laugh at things that aren't logical.

It's hard to make a joke out of someone that's a joke.

I like things that are sort of comic and humorous rather than satirical.

I don't take myself or the species too seriously. You have to laugh at everything.

A lot of French comedy is satire.

Humor is the only way to tell a story. Especially the dark ones.

Woody Allen's 'The Complete Prose' - It's just the best selection of comic writing by one author. You know it's good comedy when you get quite demoralised about yourself.

The best jokes take something awful and make it silly.

With comedy, I try to steer toward, you know, talking about people that do crazy things, messed-up things. That's what I like to talk about.

Louie Anderson thinks my thing is the absurdness of reality. That's what we do on 'Portlandia' all the time. I try to bring that absurdness of reality to everything.