John Baldessari Quotes

I definitely prefer working in comedy over drama, but at the same time, when it comes to comedy, I tend to prefer comedies that have a great sense of truth to them and that come from an honest place.

I don't try to be funny. It's just that I feel the world is a little bit absurd and off-kilter and I'm sort of reporting.

You can be funny and say what you mean; these ideas are not mutually exclusive. Some of the best jokes came from people who meant it. See: Pryor, Bruce, Carlin, etc.

Comedy is created when someone is trying very earnestly to do what he feels is the right thing to do at that moment.

I think comedy stems from being honest, often painfully so. I hope I can achieve that perspective in my own life and also have fun.

I think a lot of humor is about distracting yourself. Pretend you're not trying to make it funny. Because for some reason the effort to be funny smells like sulphur in our culture.

You shouldn't get too close to the truth, because then maybe you stop being funny.

If you record the world honestly, there's no way people can stop being funny. A lot of fiction writing doesn't get that idea, as if to acknowledge it would trivialize the story or trivialize human nature, when in fact human nature is reduced and falsified if the comic aspects are not included.

I don't just try to be funny.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation.

Comedy is just honesty. Whether things are going well or bad.

I'm a funny guy. I want people to laugh. I laugh at myself, I make fun of myself. But at the end of the day everything that I say has a message in it.

You have to be so honest in comedy.

I'm somebody who believes in funny things, and laughing, but I do like for them to come from a place that addresses the human condition.

I think you can tell the human condition better through comedy.

I've always thought something that makes you laugh, it makes you laugh because there's a little bit of truth to it.

Sometimes the best way to make 'em laugh is to show 'em how you honestly feel.

I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don't really need a distinction between them.

I think comedy has to come from a real place. It has to come from an honest place.

Anybody can make jokes. But unless they come from conviction, and there's truth in them, you haven't nailed it. They aren't as funny as they could be, and they don't make a point.

I always try to attack the most honest issues I can in my comedy.

I suppose I look for humor in most situations because it humanizes things; it makes a character much more three-dimensional if there's some kind of humor. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud type of stuff, just a sense that there is a humorous edge to things. I do like that.

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

You can pretend to be serious; but you can't pretend to be witty.

I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.