James Thurber Quotes

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

James Thurber

• Comedy

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Quotes to Explore

• The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Find
  • Ignorance
  • News

• My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.

  

  Laura Mvula
  • Night
  • Write
  • Very

• A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.

  

  Harry Browne
  • Great
  • Day
  • Burden

• The process of reclaiming the self is one of reconciliation with meaning.

  

  Tariq Ramadan
  • Process
  • Self
  • Meaning

• All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.

  

  Zaha Hadid
  • People
  • Different
  • Important

• It is right that he too should have his little chronicle, his memories, his reason, and be able to recognize the good in the bad, the bad in the worst, and so grow gently old down all the unchanging days, and die one day like any other day, only shorter.

  

  Samuel Beckett
  • Good
  • Bad
  • Die

• Without the BBC, the proliferation of television and radio channels by the private sector would simply result in more and more channels, with tiny audiences, all seeking to do the same thing. The future would be one of fragmentation - fragmentation without either plurality or diversity.

  

  Gavyn Davies
  • Future
  • Same
  • Diversity

• My father didn't know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather, and his grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slavemaster.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Father
  • Name
  • Grandfather

• The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory.

  

  Ted Engstrom
  • Pain
  • Victory
  • Far

• Often the starting point for characters, for me, is finding a little, most minor detail, and I'll go from there.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Characters
  • Point
  • Finding

• But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Control
  • Myself
  • Win

• I think Russian people are learning that democracy is not an alien thing; it's not a western invention.

  Garry Kasparov
  • People
  • Learning
  • Democracy

• Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Age
  • Generation
  • Own

• I guess what all artists want is for their work to touch someone or for it to be thought provoking.

  

  Kate Bush
  • Work
  • Want
  • Thought

• Government can supply bread, but it can't mend a broken spirit.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Government
  • Broken
  • Bread

• I'm motivated by creating a level playing field for the world so that the weak have a chance.

  

  Iqbal Quadir
  • World
  • Chance
  • Motivated

• I love my early movies, but naturalism is an artist's early style. Now I want to deal with feelings, dreams, an acceptance of irrationality.

  

  Irvin Kershner
  • Love
  • Feelings
  • Dreams

• If you could go back and change things, you might not be the person you are right now.

  

  Walter Payton
  • You
  • Change
  • Now

• I've been planning a chunk of time to myself for years now. It's been my intention to finish 'Astonishing X-Men,' 'I Am Legion' and 'Planetary' and then sort of 'disappear' from doing comic interiors for a couple of years. I'll pop up here and there with a short story or two, old promises to friends and all, but no major series work.

  

  John Cassaday
  • Up
  • Time
  • Work

• I tend to like simple music. And clever, succinct lyrics. Songs that don't try to be more than they need to to be effective, to stir up something emotionally within you.

  

  Zooey Deschanel
  • Up
  • Music
  • Simple

• Originally I'm a big pop-music aficionado, that's my love.

  

  Danny Boyle
  • Music

• I come from the school of That Horse is Not Dead.

  

  Tom Hanks
  • School
  • Horse
  • Dead

• When I first started doing comedy years ago, I used to be the biggest Michael Richards fan. I used to love this dude. He was on a TV show called 'Fridays,' and man, he was tall and lanky - and I was tall and lanky. I love physical comedy, and he was a physical comedian, and I said, 'Man, I love this guy.'

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • Love
  • Guy
  • Man

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

  

  James Thurber
  • Comedy