Lawrence Durrell Quotes

I don't see much point in doing things for a pure joke. Every now and then you need a joke, but not so much as the people who spend all their lives constructing joke palaces think you do.

Humor could not flourish in a wholly serious and rational atmosphere.

Caution: These verses may be hazardous to your solemnity.

It would be terribly boring to be earnest.

The energy in a comedy is very serious. Somebody said comedy is a tragedy plus time. When you have a tragedy, for example, like this, like, 'We're going to die,' and you have time, like, five hours to die, it becomes a comedy.

Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch.

In looking for humor, keep in mind this guideline: Sometimes it takes a little time to see the humor in your upsets; you may not find something to laugh about immediately.

You could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance.

When people are taking something extremely seriously, that's the time to take out the pig's bladder.

The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance.

I love an act that makes fun of the situation, and of course makes fun of yourself. That's important, you can't take yourself too seriously.

Sex is pretty funny, let's face it. And the more seriously we take ourselves, the funnier sex gets, I think.

I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.

Everything can be made fun of. The most serious things are ripe for making fun of them.

Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It's more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.

The best way to make the most serious point in the world is to be as unserious as possible.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

I can't take anything seriously.

Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile.

I've always found it easier to be funny than to be serious.

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

Humor and seriousness are not in opposition to each other.

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

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

I have to be entertained by what I'm writing, so a lot of my stuff has a goofiness or scatological quality. If these characters can entertain me, then I feel like I can deal with the darker or more serious stuff.