James Thurber quotes - page 3

A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands. (James Thurber)
When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare. View quote
James Thurber
If a playwright tried to see eye to eye with everybody, he would get the worst case of strabismus since Hannibal lost an eye trying to count his nineteen elephants during a snowstorm while crossing the Alps. View quote
James Thurber
Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, ''How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style'' and avoid ''How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece'' View quote
James Thurber
Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable. View quote
James Thurber
It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all. View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber
Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years. View quote
James Thurber
I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you. View quote
James Thurber
Love is blind, but desire just doesn't give a good goddamn. View quote
James Thurber
Beautiful things don't ask for attention. (James Thurber)
Don't count your boobies until they are hatched. View quote
James Thurber
Every time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish without it. But I cannot confine myself to lightness in a period of human life that demands light... We all know that, as the old adage has it, "It is later than you think."..., but I also say occasionally: "It is lighter than you think." In this light let's not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness. View quote
James Thurber
Somebody has said that woman's place is in the wrong. That's fine. What the wrong needs is a woman's presence and a woman's touch. She is far better equipped than men to set it right. View quote
James Thurber
Two is company, four is a party, three is a crowd. One is a wanderer. View quote
James Thurber
Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost. View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber
I hate women because they always know where things are. View quote
James Thurber
If I have sometimes seemed to make fun of Woman, I assure you it has only been for the purpose of egging her on. View quote
James Thurber
From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing. View quote
James Thurber
The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. (James Thurber)
Moral: Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going. View quote
James Thurber
Progress was all right. Only it went on too long. View quote
James Thurber
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess. View quote
James Thurber
Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised. View quote
James Thurber