Howard Jacobson Quotes

I write funny. If I can make my wife laugh, I know I'm on the right track.

It's difficult to differentiate between a story that's humorous and clever and one that actually makes people laugh out loud.

Using humor as a wedge into different kinds of stories is my go-to. I think anything I do would have some sort of streak of humor in it.

Comedy is tragedy plus timing.

Comedy, I imagine, is harder to do consistently than tragedy, but I like it spiced in the wine of sadness.

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 any decent comedy worth its salt has to have heart, otherwise it's just a bunch of jokes. I think people enjoy comedies that have a heart and soul to them.

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

I just heard a very funny story about somebody who died yesterday, I'm sorry to say so but it was so absurd that you can't help laughing. And the person that was concerned about that story was laughing too.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

There's an art to stupid comedy. There's an art to offensive comedy, and I think the key is it's just gotta make you laugh.

There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.

Comedy is such a personal thing. Everybody can cry at the same thing, but it's a lot harder to get everyone to laugh at the same thing.

Humor writing is something that comes naturally to me.

I think I write funny songs that make people kind of, like, stop what they're doing and be like, 'What did you say?' And then it makes them laugh a little bit.

I always found that drama, really good drama, has a lot of comedy in it.

Some people would say comedy draws from some dark places, from your dark stuff. Life's great optimists aren't necessarily the funniest people.

Plus, I love comic writing. Nothing satisfies me more than finding a funny way to phrase something.

Comedy arises out of necessity, because some things are so dark that you have to laugh about it.

I use humour a lot. My foundation is tragic, but my appearance is humorous.

I love funny women. I love writing funny women characters.

I can't not write funny. It's literally the only way I know how to do it.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.