I don't believe the writer should know too much where he's going. If he does, he runs into old man blueprintold man… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight. — James Thurber Copy Share Image
When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare. — James Thurber Copy Share Image
So much has already been written about everything that you can't find out anything about it. — James Thurber Copy Share Image
Some American writers who have known each other for years have never met in the daytime or when both were sober. — James Thurber Copy Share Image
I drew pictures rapidly and with few lines, because I had to write most of the pieces, too, and couldn't monkey long… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
“I admire the person who can write it right off. Mencken once said that a person who thinks clearly can write well.… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
“At forty my faculties may have closed up like flowers at evening, leaving me unable to write my memoirs with a fitting… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it,… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
Ours is a precarious language, as every writer knows, in which the merest shadow line often separates affirmation from negation, sense from… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
I never quite know when I'm not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, "Dammit, Thurber,… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor… — James Thurber Copy Share Image
Salvador [Dali] was brought up in Spain, a country colored by the legends of Hannibal, El Greco, and Cervantes. I was brought up in… — James Thurber Copy Share
“Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.” — James Thurber Copy Share
“Against the may, the could be, and the should, folly 'tis to balance doubt or hope.” — James Thurber Copy Share
Love is the strange bewilderment that overtakes one person on account of another person. — James Thurber Copy Share
“ There was an old coddle so molly, He talked in a glot that was poly, His gaws were so gew That his laps… — James Thurber Copy Share
All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. — James Thurber Copy Share
“I don’t understand,” said the scientist, “why you lemmings all rush down to the sea and drown yourselves.” “How curious,” said the lemming. “The… — James Thurber Copy Share
Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point… — James Thurber Copy Share
Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going. — James Thurber Copy Share
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… — James Thurber Copy Share
