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.
A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.
Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.
Sophistication might be described as the ability to cope gracefully with a situation involving the presence of a formidable menace to one's poise and prestige (such as the butler, or the man under the bed - but never the husband).
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
The dog has seldom been successful in pulling man up to its level of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.
There is something about a poet which leads us to believe that he died, in many cases, as long as 20 years before his birth.
Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.
All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.
I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.
A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make sense.
The sanity of the average banquet speaker lasts about two and a half months; at the end of that time he begins to mutter to himself, and calls out in his sleep.
Last night I dreamed of a small consolation enjoyed only by the blind: Nobody knows the trouble I've not seen!
Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
My opposition to Interviews lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.
Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.
I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance - a sharp, vindictive glance.
The difference between our decadence and the Russians' is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
