170 Writing Humor Quotes

Following is our list of writing humor quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about dark humor.

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Famous Writing Humor Quotes

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious. — Richard Russo

Humor was a good way to hide the pain. — Rick Riordan

Humor is the mask of wisdom. — Friedrich Durrenmatt

Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch. — Cyndi Lauper

I write funny. If I can make my wife laugh, I know I'm on the right track. But yes, I don't like to get Maudlin. And I have a tendency towards it. — Gene Wilder

Humor is just another defense against the universe. — Mel Brooks

Humor helps us get through life with a modicum of grace. It offers one of the few benign ways of coping with the absurdity of it all. — Diane Keaton

The secret to humor is surprise. — Aristotle

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs. — Christopher Morley

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. — Garrison Keillor

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit. — Aristotle

Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth. — Victor Borge

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility. - James Thurber

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility. — James Thurber

Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it. — Malcolm Muggeridge

Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery. — Bill Mauldin

Short Writing Humor Quotes

  • Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him. — Romain Gary
  • Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him. — Roman Gary
  • There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. — Erma Bombeck
  • Humor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation. — Viktor E. Frankl
  • Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully. — Max Eastman
  • All humor is rooted in pain. — Richard Pryor
  • Someone who makes you laugh is a comedian. Someone who makes you think and then laugh is a humorist. — George Burns
  • Humor is mankind's greatest blessing. — Mark Twain
  • Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. — Peter Ustinov
  • Humor and knowledge are the two great hopes of our culture. — Konrad Lorenz

Writing Humor Image Quotes

He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose. - Fred Allen quote

He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose. — Fred Allen

Writing humor quote There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your ow
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your own.

Writing Comedy Quotes

All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days. — E. B. White

There's sketch, improv, writing, acting, music, and badminton. Those are the seven forms of comedy. — T. J. Miller

It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is. — Jack Lemmon

Writing humor quote Every time you find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.
Every time you find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.

I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. It's a start. — Steven Wright

Welcome to my world! I've been through it all, and I often pinch myself to believe my luck. I design jewlery, create cosmetics, perform comedy, act, lecture, write books, travel, have a fabulous daughter, and a phenomenal grandson-and I feel I'm the luckiest woman on the planet. — Joan Rivers

I've done for the most part pretty much what I intended - I ended up doing comedy, writing and painting. I've had a ball. And as I get older, I just become an older kid. — Jonathan Winters

Writing humor quote Every time you are able to find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.
Every time you are able to find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.

Most of my comedy writing happens through improvisation on stage; doing it in the moment. — Marc Maron

Comedy, although it is not one of the fine arts - it's a vulgar art, it's one of the people's arts, it's the spoken word, the writing that goes into it is an art form - it's certainly artistry. — George Carlin

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar. — E. B. White

That's the best advice I can give - when you're trying to write a comedy, first write a drama, and then make it funny. — Jason Segel

Dark Humor Quotes

A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. — George Lucas

I am a candid interview and I have a dark and dry sense of humor - a very Canadian sense of humor and I am only learning now stupidly that you can't read tongue. When I say something funny in a newspaper and I meant it to be funny, it doesn't read that way. — Michael Buble

Writing humor quote Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.

A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour. — P. G. Wodehouse

Dark humor appealed to me because it was a bigger laugh than you could get with anything else. Seeing people laugh at something inappropriate with their whole bodies, a guttural, visceral laugh beyond a mere "hah." — Anthony Jeselnik

A big part of the humor is in identifying with the tragic elements of the film. The New Zealand sense of humor is very dark. Our films are usually very dark and it's always someone being killed. Usually a child. — Taika Waititi

Writing humor quote Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.
Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.

Our records, if you have a dark sense of humor, were funny, but our records weren't about comedy. They were about protests, fantasy, confrontation and all that. — Ice Cube

I envy people that know love. That have someone who takes them as they are. — Jess C Scott

Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness; and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick-bed with thorns, and rack our sinking spirits with despair. — Reginald Heber

Man makes plans . . . and God laughs. — Michael Chabon

Life Humor Quotes

Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly - Paulo Coelho

Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly — Paulo Coelho

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. — Mark Twain

Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand. — Woody Allen

Writing humor quote Write hard and clear about what hurts.
Write hard and clear about what hurts.

There's nothing inherently dirty about sex, but if you try real hard and use your imagination you can overcome that. — Lewis Grizzard

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. — Henry David Thoreau

If you're absent during my struggle, don't expect to be present during my success. — Will Smith

Writing humor quote Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

God created war so that Americans would learn geography. — Mark Twain

You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team. — Eric Cantona

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut — Albert Einstein

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back. — Oscar Wilde

Good Humor Quotes

There is a planet named Pluto, but we don't have one named Goofy. Goofy would be a good name for this planet. It certainly qualifies. — Sayings

When others kid me about being bald, I simply tell them that the way I figure it, the good Lord only gave men so many hormones, and if others want to waste theirs on growing hair, that's up to them. — John Glenn

I’m not a religious person; I would call myself an atheist. I don’t have a good story behind it, I’m just reasonable. — Anthony Jeselnik

Writing humor quote Never miss a good chance to shut up.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.

What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. — Joseph Pulitzer

Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking, brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness. — Gary Snyder

Good planning is important. I've also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you're in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you're depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension. — Edmund Hillary

Writing humor quote Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.
Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often.

I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously. — Albert Einstein

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do. — Voltaire

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant. — Washington Irving

My dad was a complicated man. He was a huge racist, my dad, but he still tried to be a good father, you know? Like, he would tell me that Santa Claus was black - that way, when I found out he didn't exist, it wouldn't be that big a let down. — Anthony Jeselnik

Sense Of Humor Quotes

If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you. — Groucho Marx

There's gon' be some stuff you gon' see that's gon' make it hard to smile in the future. But through whatever you see, through all the rain and the pain, you gotta keep your sense of humor. You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit. Remember that. — Tupac Shakur

Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It's more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack. — Dr. Seuss

Writing humor quote A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helped you write them.
A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helped you write them.

Life has three rules: Paradox, Humor, and Change. - Paradox: Life is a mystery; don't waste your time trying to figure it out. - Humor: Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure - Change: Know that nothing ever stays the same. — Dan Millman

I would say that I'm a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you...because no one has the right to take the life of another human being. — Joan Baez

Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities - a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say. — Wentworth Miller

Writing humor quote Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

'Understanding' art is like having a sense of humour - if you don't have one, no amount of explanation is going to make you laugh. — Michael Craig-Martin

Whatever you see you gotta keep a sense of humor; you gotta be able to smile through all the bullshit. — Tupac Shakur

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. — William James

When a comic becomes enamored with his own views and foists them off on the public in a polemic way, he loses not only his sense of humor but his value as a humorist. — Johnny Carson

Wit And Humor Quotes

My dad is a very quick-witted, sarcastic, dry, humorous guy, whereas my mom's very silly, and that side of the family is very musical. — Tim Heidecker

The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. — Sir William Temple

I believe disagreement is an art. It requires care. It requires skills, it requires compassion and respect. When there’s underlying respect you get to play, there’s humor, there’s wit. Ultimately you arrive at something profound as a result. — Lex Fridman

My coping mechanism with my dyslexia is to use wit and humor. — Max Brooks

Wit and humor belong to genius alone. — Miguel de Cervantes

In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. — George Herbert

Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point they can become wit, but unlike the French and the English, we have not been much good at wit since the days of Benjamin Franklin. — James Thurber

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation. — Jacques Barzun

Wit and humor do not reside in slow minds. — Miguel de Cervantes

I think hip-hop does a very good job of infusing comedy and humor and wit into music, a lot more than other genres. — Carrie Brownstein

Humour Quotes

Truth is not determined by a majority vote. — Pope Benedict XVI

I suggest taking the high road and have a little sence of humour and let things roll off your back. I think that's very important. — Sally Ride

PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with. — Sayings

Humour breaks down boundaries, it topples our self-importance, it connects people, and because it engages and entertains, it ultimately enlightens. — John Agard

What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again - Anne Frank

What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again — Anne Frank

In mathematics, if I find a new approach to a problem, another mathematician might claim that he has a better, more elegant solution. In chess, if anybody claims he is better than I, I can checkmate him. — Emanuel Lasker

The world belongs to those who set out to conquer it armed with self confidence and good humour. — Charles Dickens

I imagine hell like this: Italian punctuality, German humour and English wine. — Peter Ustinov

ARSENIC, n. A kind of cosmetic greatly affected by the ladies, whom it greatly affects in turn. — Ambrose Bierce

The most powerful weapon in Chess is to have the next move - David Bronstein

The most powerful weapon in Chess is to have the next move — David Bronstein

Black Humor Quotes

If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole airplane made out of that stuff? — George Carlin

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali

You can't slit the throat of everyone whose character it would improve. — Al Swearengen

You have to accept the fact that sometimes you are the pigeon, and sometimes you are the statue. — Claude Chabrol

Say what you want about the deaf. - Jimmy Carr

Say what you want about the deaf. — Jimmy Carr

After I told my wife that black underwear turned me on, she didn't wash my Y-fronts for a month. — Chic Murray

Just tell the truth, and they'll accuse you of writing black humor. — Charles Willeford

You know how Mexican restaurants always have "border" in the name: Border Grill, Border Cafe. You wouldn't do that to black people: Kunta's Kitchen or Shackles. They don't do it to white people. You don't see the Honkey Grill, the Cracker Barrel... oh, nevermind. — George Lopez

You can talk any redneck into a challenge. That’s why so many rednecks die in strange ways. — Jase Robertson

At least black people knew when they were slaves; you remain clueless. — Doug Stanhope

Dark Comedy Quotes

That's what I love about sketch comedy: a sketch is five minutes, then it goes dark, and there's the potential for something else. — Jason Sudeikis

I like dark comedies. That's why I like the Wayans Brothers. — Zach Galifianakis

I think that crowdfunding has become such a powerful tool to tell stories that might not find financing otherwise - like a dark comedy about infidelity, for example! — Kit Williamson

I like very dry humor. I dont like things that are over the top. I like subtlety. I like things that are nonchalant. I like characters that are sort of monotone and based in dark comedy. — Emily Rios

I'm not interested in parts where they are looking for a good-looking guy. I want to be a weird little sidekick in a crazy comedy and then play like a dark drama or a thriller. — Alexander Skarsgard

Heavy role in the movies that I've done that I have loved and fit my soul; A Simple Plan, Monster's Ball, Sling Blade, One False Move, Bad Santa even. I mean Bad Santa is a comedy, and it's a very dark comedy, and it's become like iconic, you know. — Billy Bob Thornton

Black Comedy is a farce that is played in the dark, as you know, with the lights full on. It's the Chinese convention of reversing light and dark, and exactly where anybody is at any given moment is the play. — Peter Shaffer

Dark comedy is very difficult. You have to bring the audience in and push them away at the same time. — Pierce Brosnan

I tend to find comedy in dark places. I also tend to find comedy in taking on the status quo - which has always been something I find important. — Tom Green

People hit the sauce in a big way all winter. Amidst blizzards they wrestle unsuccessfully with the dark comedy of their lives, laughter trapped in their frigid gizzards. Meanwhile, the mercury just plummets, like a migrating duck blasted out of the sky by some hunter in a cap with fur earflaps. — Amy Gerstler

Marriage Humor Quotes

I came from a big family. As a matter of fact, I never got to sleep alone until I was married. — Lewis Grizzard

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed. — Albert Einstein

God created sex. Priests created marriage. - Voltaire

God created sex. Priests created marriage. — Voltaire

You can't stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh. — Jay Leno

Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die. — Johnny Carson

I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always — Red Skelton

All marriages are same sex marriages. You get married and every night, it's the same sex. — Bill Maher

Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Before marriage, a man will lie awake thinking about something you said; after marriage , he'll fall asleep before you finish saying it. — Helen Rowland

Every man should marry. After all, happiness is not the only thing in life. — Stephen Hawking

People Writing About Writing Humor

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Read quotes by Aristotle

Aristotle
quotes on life, love and success

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Read quotes by Richard Russo

Richard Russo
quotes on politics, education and love

97 318
Read quotes by Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan
quotes on writing, reading and life

1511 8730
Read quotes by Friedrich Durrenmatt

Friedrich Durrenmatt
quotes on friendship, education and religion

62 302
Read quotes by Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper
quotes on love, life and success

64 469
Read quotes by Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder

74 6242

More Writing Humor Quotes

A poem is never finished, only abandoned. — Paul Valery

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. — Steven Wright

Based on what you know about him in history books, what do you think Abraham Lincoln would be doing if he were alive today? 1) Writing his memoirs of the Civil War. 2) Advising the President. 3) Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin. — David Letterman

I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides. The whole angst thing is cool, but if that's all you've got, it's just boring. Everything I write, whether it's happy or sad, has a sense of humor to it. — Katy Perry

A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. — Patricia Lee Gauch

Whenever I'm out of town for at least a week, I feel like I should write a postcard or something, but you can be a genius, you try and write a postcard you come across like a moron anyway: 'This city's got big buildings. I like food. Bye.' — Jim Gaffigan

The Mathematician's Shiva is a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history, and humor, not to mention a cast of delightfully quirky characters, and a math lesson or two; all together, a winning equation! When Rojstaczer writes about mathematics, you'd think he was writing about poetry. — Jonathan Evison

Write drunk; edit sober. — Ernest Hemingway

Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall. — Alan Bennett

Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators. — Stephen Fry

When I was a kid I would write songs, little plays, and poetry in school. If you're an adult and you're a poet, it's all about love and pain, but if you're a kid it's, "Does anyone know a word that rhymes with shark?" — Mike Birbiglia

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. — Dave Barry

It's impossible to write about Native life without humor-that's how people maintain sanity. — Louise Erdrich

My senior year of high school, I was voted Wittiest. So, several years later, I decided to try my hand at writing humor to see if I could be witty enough to make some money. — Barbara Park

I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters. — David Gerrold

Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the postmen can look for them while they deliver the mail? — Steven Wright

People no longer write letters. Lacking the leisure, and, for the most part, the ability, they dictate dispatches, and scribble messages. When you are in the humor, you should take a peep at some of the letters written by people who lived long ago. — Joel Chandler Harris

In order to avoid sentimentality and to be able to write the screenplay with the kind of humor and irony necessary to keep the story moving, I needed to distance myself as much as I could from the characters, to try to get to a point where I could view them objectively. — Hirokazu Koreeda

When in doubt, blow something up. — J. Michael Straczynski

I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it, because many interesting challenges are set up, and because I have the hope it may do some good. — James Thurber

Improvisation is just writing in front of an audience. — Carl Reiner

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made. — Jean Giraudoux

I am in the Master of Professional Writing program teaching Humor Writing, Literary and Dramatic. — Shelley Berman

When you're in Hollywood and you're a comedian, everybody wants you to do other things. All right, you're a stand-up comedian, can you write us a script? That's not fair. That's like if I worked hard to become a cook, and I'm a really good cook, they'd say, "OK, you're a cook. Can you farm?" — Mitch Hedberg

Writing humor in my column isn't as dangerous as performing it. If I fail in front of a live audience, the humiliation is as great as anything a human being can suffer. — Art Buchwald

Russell Brand has announced that he plans to write a series of children's books. First up: 'Horton Hears a Heroin Dealer.' — Joan Rivers

I really like the Observer. I think I'd love to have a column with a broad reach that would enable me to do some proper reporting, but keep it on sort of a humorous level. I've always had a very happy experience writing for them. — Toby Young

Russell's prose has been compared by T.S. Eliot to that of David Hume's. I would rank it higher, for it had more color, juice, and humor. But to be lucid, exciting and profound in the main body of one's work is a combination of virtues given to few philosophers. Bertrand Russell has achieved immortality by his philosophical writings. — Sidney Hook

Writing is not for me. I completely lose my sense of humor when I write. I become extremely pathetic, very sensational. Images give me possibilities that I don't have with words. — Marjane Satrapi

I use a lot of humor in my writing. But it's completely black humor. — Kurt Vile

I think if you write humor, then people don't - you know - they don't give you that much credit. They tend to think you just dictate your stories into a tape recorder. And I'm not necessarily insulted by that, because I think that just means that it looks easy. — David Sedaris

From the opening lines, Sleeping with Schubert is a hilarious, whimsical romp through the looking glass of a great musical mystery. The writing snaps, crackles, and pops with humor as Bonnie Marson makes Schubert a sexy, happening kind of guy who gives new meaning to our dreaming the impossible. — Jonis Agee

If you covered a broom handle with oil and shoved it up my arse, then put me on a trampoline, in a lift, I could write a better song on the walls. — Dylan Moran

I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated; it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am. — Erica Jong

I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge. — Herman Wouk

Writing humor is not something every single person can do. — Celia Rivenbark

I have a reputation for doing superheroes, but I like all kinds of writing. In fact, hardly anybody knows this, but I've probably written as many humor stories as superhero stories. — Stan Lee

In You Are Not Dead Wendy Xu breaks all the old rules that have never done us any favors anyway. She writes beautifully, noticing who we are, and letting us see ourselves with a little more humanity, a little more humor, a little more humility. I'm happy to have read this book. — James Tate

Some major writers have a huge impact, like Ayn Rand, who to my mind is a lousy fiction writer because her writing has no compassion and virtually no humor. She has a philosophical and economical message that she is passing off as fiction, but it really isn't fiction at all. — Theodore Sturgeon

My girlfriend does her nails with white-out. When she's asleep, I go over there and write misspelled words on them. — Steven Wright

I wrote a script, and I gave it to a guy who reads scripts, and he read it, and he liked it, but he said he thinks I ought to re-write it. I said, "Fuck that - I'll just make a copy!" — Mitch Hedberg

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