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Humorist Quotes

We’ve collected the best Humorist Quotes from the greatest minds of the world: Cullen Hightower, David Sedaris, Dick Cavett, Jason Whitlock, James Thurber. Use them as an inspiration.

1
There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they’re called humorists.
Cullen Hightower
2
I’ve always been very upfront about the way I write, and I’ve always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.
David Sedaris
3
Great humorists are great insulters.
Dick Cavett
4
Have I been an entertainer, a provocateur and a humorist? Absolutely.
Jason Whitlock
5
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
6
My mom is well read in English and Bengali, and my dad is a humorist, science writer and a futurist.
Konkona Sen Sharma
7
Being a humorist is not a voluntary thing. You can tell this because in a situation where saying a funny thing will cause a lot of trouble, a humorist will still say the funny thing. No matter how inappropriate.
P. J. O’Rourke
8
But I’m a humorist. I’m not a reporter, I never pretended to be a reporter.
David Sedaris
9
Humorists are using Twitter to tell jokes in an interesting way. It doesn’t have to be profound, and it doesn’t have to be earth-shaking, but it is transformative.
James Gleick
10
Wit – the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.
Ambrose Bierce
11
To say that a humorist exaggerates to get big laughs, I don’t see how that’s big news.
David Sedaris
12
One reason I didn’t trust my writing for so long was that I always considered myself a serious dramatic actor. But people would always laugh when I shared my writing with them. It took my husband to help me see that I really am part humorist.
Ruby Dee
13
The satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive and eventually releases him again for another chance.
Peter De Vries
14
A humorist has to be taken seriously before he’s considered a real writer.
Art Buchwald
15
A humorist doesn’t really do that much note-taking.
P. J. O’Rourke
16
I think that all comics or humorists, or whatever we are, ask questions. That’s what we’re supposed to do. But I not only ask the questions, I offer solutions.
Roseanne Barr
17
Professional humorists and cartoonists have to go through a stage in which they have to kill their own internal editor just so they can get stuff out. So whether they believe it or not, they need me on the other end to do that editing for them.
Robert Mankoff
18
Many of the writers who have inspired me most are outside the genre: Humorists like Robert Benchley and James Thurber, screenwriters like Ben Hecht and William Goldman, and journalists/columnists like H.L. Mencken, Mike Royko and Molly Ivins.
John Scalzi
19
That’s the great test: if you‘re going to be a great comic writer, not a humorist, you’ve got to take it into the throat of grief. Can you make laughter and seriousness so close that they are the same thing?
Howard Jacobson
20
I’m not a comic. I’m a humorist.
Dick Gregory
21
I’m a classic example of all humorists – only funny when I’m working.
Peter Sellers
22
A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it.
Don Herold