“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.”
Other James Thurber Quotes
Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.
James Thurber 
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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.
James Thurber
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Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
James Thurber
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It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
James Thurber
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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
57% of people like this quote