Famous Quotes by James Thurber (54 Quotations)

The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.

James Thurber – [Apathy]

The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.

James Thurber – [Laughter]

The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

James Thurber – [Comedy and Comedians]

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people –that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

James Thurber – [Humor]

There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.

James Thurber – [Light]

We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves.

James Thurber – [Broadway]

We are a nation that has always gone in for the loud laugh, the wow, the yak, the belly laugh, and the dozen other labels for the roll- em-in-the-aisles gagerissimo. This is the kind of laugh that delights actors, directors, and producers, but dismays writers of comedy because it is the laugh that often dies in the lobby. The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.

James Thurber – [Laughter]

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?

James Thurber – [Conflict]

When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.

James Thurber – [Writers and Writing]

While he was not as dumb as an ox, he was not any smarter either.

James Thurber – [Character]

Why do you have to a nonconformist like everybody else?

James Thurber – [Conformity]

With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

James Thurber – [Age and Aging]

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

James Thurber – [Lies and Lying]

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

James Thurber – [Persuasion]