A. S. Byatt Quotes

Personally I don't spend much time thinking about being funny. For me it's always been just a way to get by, a way to be likable yet to remain removed. When I speak up, it's not because I have any particular answers; rather, I have a desire to puncture the pretentiousness of those who seem so certain they do.

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

It is a challenge. When you do things that are comedy, you're having to look at the funnier side of life. Often I find Christians - but not just Christians, (any) people who have a certain core belief of things - don't like to have fun made of them at all.

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

It would be terribly boring to be earnest.

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

I just tell jokes, and I think a lot of people take it too seriously. It's not that I don't have things that I'm angry about in the world, and I think most decent human beings are upset about things, and even upset about things in their own country, but I'm not a particularly unhappy fellow.

The most important thing in comedy - apart from empathy, which I think is important even if disguised - is surprise. I like surprising people with the fact that something's even a joke at all.

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

We take life too seriously: the office of wit is to correct this tendency.

I can't not put humor in a book.

Nothing like a little judicious levity.

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.

I think God gave us senses of humor, and we should use them.

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

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.

Caution: These verses may be hazardous to your solemnity.

We do not take humor seriously enough.

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.

Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.

Funny is when you're serious.

Things can be funny only when we are in fun. When we're 'dead earnest,' humor is the only thing that is dead.

I think things are funny when the character is taking it totally seriously.