Comedy Funny Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Comedy Funny. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named "Bush", "Dick", and "Colin." Need I say more?
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Chris Rock
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Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.
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Bernard Branson
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I simply regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world.
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Mindy Kaling (Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns))
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If I looked like him,” Tara said. β€œI’d want to have sex with myself. All the time.
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Jill Shalvis (Simply Irresistible (Lucky Harbor, #1))
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It really seems to me that in the midst of great tragedy, there is always the horrible possibility that something terribly funny will happen.
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Philip K. Dick
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Fuck it... That's really the attitude that keeps a family together, it's not "we love each other", it's just "fuck it, man.
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Louis C.K.
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Some stories have to be written because no one would believe the absurdity of it all.
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Shannon L. Alder
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God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.
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Garrison Keillor (Happy to Be Here)
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You know you're a hot mess when the only person buying you drinks all night is yourself.
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Chelsea Handler
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Otis," I said. "Shhh," he said. "I'm incognito. Call me...Otis." "I'm not sure that's how incognito works, but okay." Otis, aka Otis climbed into the chair I'd reserved for Sam.
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Rick Riordan (The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2))
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When a window is opened up from the inside for you to climb through, then that window isn't there to be climbed through by you
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Jimmy Tudeski (Double Trouble)
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My tendency to make up stories and lie compulsively for the sake of my own amusement takes up a good portion of my day and provides me with a peace of mind not easily attainable in this economic climate.
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Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang)
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Kaz reached into his coat pocket. "Here," he said and handed Jesper a slender book with an elaborate cover. "Are we going to read to each other?" "Just flip it open to the back." Jesper opened the book and peered at the last page, puzzled. "So?" "Hold it up so we don't have to look at your ugly face." "My face has character. Besides - oh!" "An excellent read, isn't it?" "Who knew I had a taste for literature?
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Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
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I’m not aspiring to be someone else – If I’m me for the rest of my life then so be it
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Terry Lander (Life Through the Eyes of an Insider: 101 Poems to Help You Understand Life Better)
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Her lips full and inviting, she has an infectious laugh and glassy cackle in her eyes, and a 2000 volt sexual charisma that beckons me like a fluff girl on scuffed knees.
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Brett Tate
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-"He loved her...It was noble of him. It was beautiful." -"It was stupid.
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Lloyd Alexander (Westmark (Westmark, #1))
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Don’t do anything stupid." "Don’t worry," I whispered over the line, "I’m an expert on stupid." "You’re..." "Like, I can spot stupidity, because I know it so well. The way an exterminator knows bugs really well, and can spot where they’ve been? I’m like that. A stupidinator." "Never say that word again," Prof said.
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Brandon Sanderson (Firefight (The Reckoners, #2))
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To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click 'I agree'.
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Bill Maher
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What I want you to know: Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. Clinical depression is no fucking picnic.
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Jenny Lawson (Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things)
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Sort of' is such a harmless thing to say... sort of. It's just a filler. Sort of... it doesn't really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means everything. Like... after "I love you"... or "You're going to live"... or "It's a boy!
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Demetri Martin
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Knowing something is a bad idea does not always decrease the odds that you will do it.
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Hank Green (An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1))
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Who are you and how did you get in here?" "I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.
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Leslie Nielsen
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Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious
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Peter Ustinov
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...Whenever someone says to me, 'Jerry Lewis says women aren't funny,' or 'Christopher Hitchens says women aren't funny,' or 'Rick Fenderman says women aren't funny... Do you have anything to say to that?' Yes. We don't fucking care if you like it. I don't say it out loud, of course, because Jerry Lewis is a great philanthropist, Hitchens is very sick, and the third guy I made up.
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Tina Fey
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I was making pancakes the other day and a fly flew into the kitchen. And that's when I realized that a spatula is a lot like a fly swatter. And a crushed fly is a lot like a blueberry. And a roommate is a lot like a fly eater.
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Demetri Martin
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To be a philosopher, just reverse everything you have ever been told...and have a sense of humor doing it.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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I’ve never been bothered with my conduct. I’ve only been bothered by people that don’t get it correct when they gossip about me.
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Shannon L. Alder
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Anyone who is considered funny will tell you, sometimes without even your asking, that deep inside they are very serious, neurotic, introspective people.
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Wendy Wasserstein
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Life Is Too Short--So Kiss Slowly, Laugh Insanely, Love Truly, And Live With Passion.
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Andy Vogt
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I do not know what it was about that boy but just looking at him, even I wanted to clout him on the head. It was a head that invited violence.
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Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers)
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As it stands right now, I lead Richard Pryor in heart attacks, two to one. However, Richard still leads me, one to nothing, in burning yourself up.
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George Carlin
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Sam's phone buzzed. She fished it out of her pocket, checked the screen, and cursed. "I have to go." "You just got here." "Valkyrie business. Possible code three-eight-one: heroic death in progress." "You're making that up." "I'm not." "So...what, somebody thinks they're about to die and they text you 'Going down! Need Valkyrie ASAP!' followed by a bunch of sad-face emojis?
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Rick Riordan (The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2))
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Slap-stick comedy is really funny, unless you're the one getting slapped with the stick.
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Carroll Bryant
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Who’s there?” β€œThe scratcher of your itch,” he said. She opened the door a crack and stuck her nose out. β€œWas that supposed to be romantic?
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Jill Shalvis (Instant Attraction (Wilder, #1))
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Reckoner Super Plan for Killing Regalia... Step One: find Regalia, then totally explode her. Lots and Lots. Step Two: put Val on decaf. Step Three: Mizzy gets a cookie.
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Brandon Sanderson (Firefight (The Reckoners, #2))
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You got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.
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John Madden
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Warm, aquamarine eyes stared into himβ€”providing a lifeline to shore. And he wondered if she was really the one who needed saving . . .
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J. Rose Black (Losing My Breath)
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Anytime there's a bad female stand-up somewhere, some dickhead Interblogger will deduce that β€œwomen aren't funny.” Using that same math, I can state: Male comedy writers piss in cups.
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Tina Fey (Bossypants)
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so, what are you in for? MANSLAUGHTER!!! I SLAUGHTERED A MAN!! JUST LIKE A PIG!!! PUT HIM ON A SPIT AND PUT AN APPLE IN HIS MOUTH!!!!
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Brian Regan (Funny Business: The Best of Uproar Comedy Vol. II)
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You ever noticed how people who believe in Creationism look really un-evolved? You ever noticed that? Eyes real close together, eyebrow ridges, big furry hands and feet. "I believe God created me in one day". Yeah, looks like He rushed it
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Bill Hicks
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I'm sorry. The Truth is.... I'm an Otaku. - Serinuma Kae
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Junko (η§γŒγƒ’γƒ†γ¦γ©γ†γ™γ‚“γ  1 [Watashi ga Motete dousunda 1] (Kiss Him, Not Me!, #1))
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A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding forever. One is not meant to laugh. One stays quiet and marvels. Spontaneously witty talk is without question the most fascinating entertainment there is.
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Diana Vreeland (D.V.)
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Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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She didn’t sound overjoyed. She didn’t sound even slightly joyed.
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Sarah Mayberry (Can't Get Enough)
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One should never give up on hope. Unless that's the name of the girl who cheated on you in which case, yeah, give her up.
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Carroll Bryant
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Music and comedy are so linked. The rhythm of comedy is conΒ­nected to the rhythm of music. They’re both about creating tension and knowing when to let it go. I’m always surprised when somebody funny is not musical.
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Conan O'Brien
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A question that always makes me hazy is it me or are the others crazy' Albert Einstein
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Victoria Ward (The Unconventional Life of Jenna Jaghe)
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Thank you. For being willing to talk. For not turning me in. For... being you.' 'I'm pretty good at being me,' I said. 'I've had all these years to practice--I hardly ever get it wrong these days.
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Brandon Sanderson (Firefight (The Reckoners, #2))
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What the hell. If you had to go, why not go with style?
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Terry Pratchett (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
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A comedy isn't about being funny," said Mrs. Baker. "We talked about this before." "A comedy is about character who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all. That's how I know." "Suppose you can't see it?" "That's the daring part," said Mrs. Baker.
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Gary D. Schmidt (The Wednesday Wars)
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Ms. Fang is the nicest, sweetest teacher at Scary School. She only ate twelve kids last year.
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Derek The Ghost (Scary School (Scary School, 1))
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My personal motto has always been if you've already dug yourself a hole too deep to climb out of, you may as well keep digging.
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Katie Henry (Heretics Anonymous)
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Sounds like you kids have some talking to do. I'll be eavesdropping from the kitchen.
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Jill Shalvis (Heating Up The Holidays)
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It's not a stereotype if it's always true.
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Daniel Tosh
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The ones who constantly make us laugh are the hardest of friends to know - for comedians are the caricatures among us.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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He couldn’t just come right out with it, could he? No, that would scare her off. He had to be subtle, build up to it. Explain himself. β€œI love you.” Of course, straight to the point was also an effective strategy.
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Sarah Mayberry (Can't Get Enough)
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Over the road there was a church: a modern gray building, which constantly played a recording of church bells. Strange it was. Why no proper bells? I never went in but I bet it was a robot church for androids, where the Bible was in binary and their Jesus had laser eyes and metal claws.
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Russell Brand (My Booky Wook)
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Well, bloody noses." I hug his coat tighter. "Those are definitely hot.
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Stephanie Perkins (Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss, #3))
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Our family was nearly torn apart on several occasions by arguments started when the refrigerator door was open for what my father deemed as β€˜too long.
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Wes Locher (Musings on Minutiae)
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Tatiana is a ridiculously curvy thing of dreams, with smooth succulent thighs, long strawberry blond cascading beneath a teal bandana, and a nympho sparkle in her eyes that says pick me, lick me, spank me, or I punish you. Raw innocence and mayhem at once.
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Brett Tate
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When it rains it pours and when it shines you get melanoma.
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Sol Luckman (Beginner's Luke (Beginner's Luke, #1))
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I came up with my own expression. I like to make it hail. Yeah. That's when you throw change on sluts.
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Daniel Tosh
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You know what love means? It means loving the person you are now and not the person you want someone to be or the person they will be.
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Samantha Stroh Bailey
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And you’re overthinking things, Charming.Β  Do the math.Β  Naked, interested man, check.Β  Wet, willing woman, double check.Β  Now insert part A into slot B and we can move on to the engineering portion of our quiz today.
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Jane Cousins (To Fight A Fate (Southern Sanctuary, #11))
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I want you to know, chickens aren’t sexy. Not to me.” This was met with silence. β€œAre you there?” She was slurring her words now, which was embarrassing, so she took a deep breath. β€œCam? Can you hear me?” β€œYes, chickens aren’t sexy. Uh…I don’t think they’re meant to be.
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Jill Shalvis (Instant Attraction (Wilder, #1))
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The girl says "Oh uh-uh, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Just because I'm dressed this way does not make me a whore!" Which is true, Gentlemen, that is true. Just because they dress a certain way doesn't mean they are a certain way. Don't even forget it. But ladies, you must understand that is fucking confusing. It just is. Now that would be like me, Dave Chappelle, the comedian, walking down the street in a cop uniform. Somebody might run up on me saying, "Oh, thank God. Officer, help us! Come on. They're over here. Help us!" "Oh-hoh! Just because I'm dressed this way does not make me a police officer!" See what I mean? All right, ladies, fine. You are not a whore. But you are wearing a whore's uniform.
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Dave Chappelle
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We needed a refrigerator for our new place and I've never bought a refrigerator my whole life. I went into the appliance store, there's like 900 of 'em lined up, there's a salesman there. What's this guy supposed to say about refrigerators? "Well you got this refrigerator here, This keeps all your food cold for 600...You've got this refrigerator, This keeps all your food cold for 800...Check this out, 1400, keeps all your food cold.
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Brian Regan
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JACK You're quite perfect, Miss Fairfax. GWENDOLEN Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions.
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Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
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Manners without sincerity, is called polite society
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Josh Stern (And That's Why I'm Single: What Good Is Having A Lucky Horseshoe Up Your Butt When The Horse Is Still Attached?)
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Real comedy is not when you laugh at an idiot, it's when the idiot laughs at you.
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Raheel Farooq
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The problem is, these days you have to listen to too many parts of your body. Sometimes I go with my gut feeling, some say go with what your heart says - it's only a matter of time before my appendix will have an opinion. This is probably why there are so many helplines these days. No one knows who to bloody listen to!
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Karl Pilkington (The Further Adventures of An Idiot Abroad)
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Sure I eat my feelings, but I save the emotional roller coaster for dessert
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Josh Stern (And That's Why I'm Single: What Good Is Having A Lucky Horseshoe Up Your Butt When The Horse Is Still Attached?)
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What are you assholes looking at?" "Nothing," said Radar. "We're certainly not looking at your eyebrows.
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John Green (Paper Towns)
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There are many other little refinements too, Mr. Bohlen. You'll see them all when you study the plans carefully. For example, there's a trick that nearly every writer uses, of inserting at least one long, obscure word into each story. This makes the reader think that the man is very wise and clever. So I have the machine do the same thing. There'll be a whole stack of long words stored away just for this purpose." Where?" In the 'word-memory' section," he said, epexegetically.
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Roald Dahl (The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl)
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The first way not to shake hands is executed by receiving someone’s hand in yours and proceeding to squeeze it tightly, hurting the other party as if they were responsible for a past death in your family, or your adoption as a child.
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Wes Locher (Musings on Minutiae)
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Just leave me alone, I want to be alone,” she said when Jack tried to open the car door. She hit the lock, and wound the window up. Since the roof was down, it was a fairly pointless exercise.
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Sarah Mayberry (Can't Get Enough)
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Whoa, don't assume, dude," Marco said. "My mom always said, when you assume you make an ass of u and me--
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Peter Lerangis (Lost in Babylon (Seven Wonders, #2))
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An assumption is the joke; truth the punchline.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.
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Oliver Markus Malloy (Bad Choices Make Good Stories - Finding Happiness in Los Angeles (How The Great American Opioid Epidemic of The 21st Century Began, #3))
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She was Darcy Montgomery, Southern Sanctuary Special Liaison, she fixed things.Β  When people irritated her, well, she fixed them… she fixed them good.Β  Or should that be, for good?Β 
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Jane Cousins (To Handle A Hellcat (Southern Sanctuary, #12))
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Perhaps history this century, thought Eigenvalue, is rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are situated, as Stencil seemed to be, at the bottom of a fold, it's impossible to determine warp, woof, or pattern anywhere else. By virtue, however, of existing in one gather it is assumed there are others, compartmented off into sinuous cycles each of which had come to assume greater importance than the weave itself and destroy any continuity. Thus it is that we are charmed by the funny-looking automobiles of the '30's, the curious fashions of the '20's, the particular moral habits of our grandparents. We produce and attend musical comedies about them and are conned into a false memory, a phony nostalgia about what they were. We are accordingly lost to any sense of continuous tradition. Perhaps if we lived on a crest, things would be different. We could at least see.
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Thomas Pynchon (V.)
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I loved Monty Python for the wordplay--this sense that you didn’t have to squash your intelligence to be funny. In fact, you could walk right into your intelligence and nerdiness and self-doubt, and that could be funny.
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George Saunders
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Ever since the robot was first invented, there have been people who swear up and down that this marks the first step towards the fall of man … To be fair, their arguments are backed with scientific fact taken from documentary films such as The Terminator, The Matrix, and RoboCop.
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Wes Locher (Musings on Minutiae)
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Why is the whole world arguing about sexism, racism and discrimination all the time, yet nobody talks about those bouncers outside nightclubs, discriminating against older people and their right to have a drink and a little dance?
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Jimmy Tudeski (Double Trouble)
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Invalidating a woman’s life choices by saying things like, β€œOh, but you’ll regret it if you don’t have kids,” or, β€œI didn’t think I wanted kids either until I had one,” is like me going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and telling the newly sober that eventually when they grow old, they’ll want to take the edge off with a little gin and tonic and that if they could only just be mature enough to control themselves, they could go on a fun wine-tasting tour in the Napa Valley.
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Jen Kirkman (I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids)
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I had no idea that marriage was only supposed to be between two people who wanted to get between the sheets and make more people. What ever happened to marrying for loveβ€” or to get on your partner’s health insurance policy, or for presents? No one was going to buy two people in their thirties a four-slice toaster if we just continued to live in sin.
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Jen Kirkman (I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids)
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We finally settled on Francis Ford Coppola's version of Dracula, which, unfortunately, Gabriel seemed to think was a comedy. I think it was the combination of Keanu Reeves's British accent and Gary Oldman's elderly Count Dracula hairstyle. They're just misleading.
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Molly Harper (Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs (Jane Jameson, #1))
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It wasn’t enough that I had to worry about playing well and winning the game, but I also had to deal with possibility that one of my teammates could be dragged off the field by the inhabitants of the mental hospital.
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Wes Locher (Musings on Minutiae)
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Another thing I take issue with are people who take their dogs on "play dates," or even worse, people who choose to dress their dogs up in outfits better suited for homosexuals participating in a gay pride parade. Dog costumes are right up there with something else I find particularly offensive: sweater vests.
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Chelsea Handler (Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea)
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At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.
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Eric Idle
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I don't appreciate people who celebrate their dog's birthdays with "dog parties," and then invite their friends who don't even have dogs. I understand why people like dogs, and I think they definitely bring more to the table than cats or those godforsaken ferrets, but I don't think it's healthy for people to treat their dogs like they are real people.
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Chelsea Handler (Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea)
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Hey, he's not using a holster," I said, glancing at Alex's on the dresser. He laughed out loud. "Yeah, I guess he must want something shooting off. It'd be so great if these things were true to life - the next scene would show him at hospital like, clutching himself in agony."'Angel - L.A.Weatherly
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L.A.Weatherly (Angel, #1)
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There was a group of fans who wanted autographs, and several women who managed to write their phone numbers on Wade's hand before he pulled free. Sam sent him an arched brow, but he just shrugged. He got numbers written on him a lot; he'd never figured out how to stop that from happening.
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Jill Shalvis (Slow Heat (Pacific Heat, #2))
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I started to crawl off; then I remembered my leftover pizza, and I peeled off the salami, pepperoni, and anchovies and placed them on the CD tray (whicn no one used these days with flash drives around)on Boone's computer. I hit the close button and watched the smelly part of my delicious dinner slide away. Boone would have a great time wondering 'where's that smell coming from?
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Duffy Brown (Iced Chiffon (Consignment Shop Mystery, #1))
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Comedy is hard. In many ways, it's like singing: If you have perfect pitch, it's much easier. But you can still go a long way toward mastering the rudiments if you must trust your voice. Most of the mistakes I've seen people make in trying to write funny is that they don't trust their own senses of humor. They don't think they're funny, and they set out to write funny the way they've read other people being funny with a grim determination that pretty much precludes any chance that anybody is going to have fun. Relax, listen to your characters, exploit their fears and flaws, and mine their situations for places in which they can use their own brands of humor.
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Jennifer Crusie
β€œ
So...Now that we got that over with, let's get back to love at first sight, Evan said. Not infatuation at first sight...Love. With a capital L, he clarified. Love? Heeb asked, playfully pretending not to know the concept. Yeah. The real thing. The conviction that if you had this one woman, all other women would become irrelevant. You'd never again be unhappy And you'd give up anything to have her and keep her. You've experienced that? Only once. And I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since. Tell me more. Sometimes I think that I still chase women just to forget about her. Because I know I can never have her. But I can't seem to forget about her, no matter what girl I'm chasing...No one can possibly compare.... Who is she? Delilah, Evan said wistfully. Delilah?, asked Heeb, intrigued Delilah Nakova, Evan replied, with a hint of awe and reverence in his voice.
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Zack Love (Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC (Back When Phones Weren't So Smart))
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My Father, the Age I Am Now Time, which diminishes all things, increases understanding for the aging. β€”PLUTARCH My mother was the star: Smart and funny and warm, A patient listener and an easy laugher. My father was . . . an accountant: Not one to look up to, Ask advice from, Confide in. A man of few words. We faulted himβ€”my mother, my sister, and I, For being this dutiful, uninspiring guy Who never missed a day of work, Or wondered what our dreams were. Just . . . an accountant. Decades later, My mother dead, my sister dead, My father, the age I am now, Planning ahead in his so-accountant way, Sent me, for my records, Copies of his will, his insurance policies, And assorted other documents, including The paid receipt for his cemetery plot, The paid receipt for his tombstone, And the words that he had chosen for his stone. And for the first time, shame on me, I saw my father: Our family’s prime provider, only provider. A barely-out-of-boyhood married man Working without a safety net through the Depression years That marked him forever, Terrified that maybe he wouldn’t make it, Terrified he would fall and drag us down with him, His only goal, his life-consuming goal, To put bread on our table, a roof over our head. With no time for anyone’s secrets, With no time for anyone’s dreams, He quietly earned the words that made me weep, The words that were carved, the following year, On his tombstone: HE TOOK CARE OF HIS FAMILY.
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Judith Viorst (Nearing Ninety: And Other Comedies of Late Life (Judith Viorst's Decades))
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It is the custom on the stage: in all good, murderous melodramas: to present the tragic and the comic scenes, in as regular alternation, as the layers of red and white in a side of streaky, well-cured bacon. The hero sinks upon his straw bed, weighed down by fetters and misfortunes; and, in the next scene, his faithful but unconscious squire regales the audience with a comic song. We behold, with throbbing bosoms, the heroine in the grasp of a proud and ruthless baron: her virtue and her life alike in danger; drawing forth a dagger to preserve the one at the cost of the other; and, just as our expectations are wrought up to the highest pitch, a whistle is heard: and we are straightway transported to the great hall of the castle: where a grey-headed seneschal sings a funny chorus with a funnier body of vassals, who are free of all sorts of places from church vaults to palaces, and roam about in company, carolling perpetually. Such changes appear absurd; but they are not so unnatural as they would seem at first sight. The transitions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, and from mourning weeds to holiday garments, are not a whit less startling; only, there, we are busy actors, instead of passive lookers-on; which makes a vast difference. The actors in the mimic life of the theatre, are blind to violent transitions and abrupt impulses of passion or feeling, which, presented before the eyes of mere spectators, are at once condemned as outrageous and preposterous.
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Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)
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Above all, believe. Cultivate your swagger. Make this your new religion: You are funny and talented, and you’re going to try something new. This is the exact right time for that. This is the most important year of your life, and for once you are NOT going to let yourself down. If you fall down and feel depressed, you will get back up. If you feel lethargic and scared, you will try something else: a new routine, a new roommate situation, a healthier diet. You will read books about comedy. You will work tirelessly and take pride in your tireless work. And you will take time every few hours to stop and say to yourself, β€œLook at me. I’m doing it. I’m chasing my dream. I am following my calling.” It doesn’t matter if your dreams come true, if agents swoon and audiences cheer. Trust me on that: It truly doesn’t matter. What matters is the feeling that you’re doing it, every day. What matters is the workβ€”diving in, feeling your way in the dark, finding the words, trusting yourself, embracing your weird voice, celebrating your quirks on the page, believing in all of it. What matters is the feeling that you’re not following someone else around, that you’re not half-assing this, that you’re not waiting for something to happen, that you’re not waiting for your whole life to start. What matters is you, all alone at your desk at five in the morning. I write this from my own desk at five in the morning, my favorite place, a place where I know who I am and what I’m meant to accomplish in this life. Savor that precious space. That space will feel like purgatory at first, because you’ll realize that it all depends on you. That space will feel like salvation eventually, because you’ll realize that it all depends on you.
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Heather Havrilesky (How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life)
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For now, the Simple Daily Practice means doing ONE thing every day. Try any one of these things each day: A) Sleep eight hours. B) Eat two meals instead of three. C) No TV. D) No junk food. E) No complaining for one whole day. F) No gossip. G) Return an e-mail from five years ago. H) Express thanks to a friend. I) Watch a funny movie or a stand-up comic. J) Write down a list of ideas. The ideas can be about anything. K) Read a spiritual text. Any one that is inspirational to you. The Bible, The Tao te Ching, anything you want. L) Say to yourself when you wake up, β€œI’m going to save a life today.” Keep an eye out for that life you can save. M) Take up a hobby. Don’t say you don’t have time. Learn the piano. Take chess lessons. Do stand-up comedy. Write a novel. Do something that takes you out of your current rhythm. N) Write down your entire schedule. The schedule you do every day. Cross out one item and don’t do that anymore. O) Surprise someone. P) Think of ten people you are grateful for. Q) Forgive someone. You don’t have to tell them. Just write it down on a piece of paper and burn the paper. It turns out this has the same effect in terms of releasing oxytocin in the brain as actually forgiving them in person. R) Take the stairs instead of the elevator. S) I’m going to steal this next one from the 1970s pop psychology book Don’t Say Yes When You Want to Say No: when you find yourself thinking of that special someone who is causing you grief, think very quietly, β€œNo.” If you think of him and (or?) her again, think loudly, β€œNo!” Again? Whisper, β€œNo!” Again, say it. Louder. Yell it. Louder. And so on. T) Tell someone every day that you love them. U) Don’t have sex with someone you don’t love. V) Shower. Scrub. Clean the toxins off your body. W) Read a chapter in a biography about someone who is an inspiration to you. X) Make plans to spend time with a friend. Y) If you think, β€œEverything would be better off if I were dead,” then think, β€œThat’s really cool. Now I can do anything I want and I can postpone this thought for a while, maybe even a few months.” Because what does it matter now? The planet might not even be around in a few months. Who knows what could happen with all these solar flares. You know the ones I’m talking about. Z) Deep breathing. When the vagus nerve is inflamed, your breathing becomes shallower. Your breath becomes quick. It’s fight-or-flight time! You are panicking. Stop it! Breathe deep. Let me tell you something: most people think β€œyoga” is all those exercises where people are standing upside down and doing weird things. In the Yoga Sutras, written in 300 B.C., there are 196 lines divided into four chapters. In all those lines, ONLY THREE OF THEM refer to physical exercise. It basically reads, β€œBe able to sit up straight.” That’s it. That’s the only reference in the Yoga Sutras to physical exercise. Claudia always tells me that yogis measure their lives in breaths, not years. Deep breathing is what keeps those breaths going.
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James Altucher (Choose Yourself)