Anthony Burgess Quotes

I find something funny when it lives on many levels - a level of self-deprecation, of knowledge and heightened reality.

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

We have a curious relationship with 'funny' in the U.K. We love to laugh, but we also think that making people laugh is just a little bit second-tier, especially in a literary context.

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.

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious.

I think at its best the American sense of humor is the same as the British sense of humor at its best, which is to be wry and ironic and self deprecating.

The pun exists in a social and political void, caring nothing for the issues of its day, content merely to display itself in its small cleverness.

Humorists can never start to take themselves seriously. It's literary suicide.

I have always found humor in places where humor wasn't necessarily intended.

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

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.

Comedy is funny when it comes from truth, and that's always the rule of them. It's about how far you can push that boundary.

I adore jokes. They're a theatrical contrivance, but the irony of all fiction is that you approach reality by avoiding it a bit; you spoof it a bit.

'The Ugly Truth' isn't trying to change the world with strong political opinions; it's just trying to entertain you with thoughts and ideas from my crazy mind!

Indonesian people don't get satire; that's the thing. There's no thought in our humor.

I like telling stories with a sense of humor. But humor can also distance you from the subject you're writing about. I'm interested in using humor as a portal to something a bit more serious.

If written with enough care and thoughtfulness, a joke can make you laugh at a belief you hold dear.

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.

Taking the humour out of Dickens, it's not Dickens any more.

Comedies always need to be provocative and catch your attention in a way that dramas don't have to.

I don't think comedy is necessarily an attack. It's finding humour in life. I don't think if you're making a joke about something you're automatically demeaning it.

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

I like funny things, but I don't find myself particularly funny.

Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humor is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude.

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