We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves. – James Thurber
Comedy has to be done en clair. You cant 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
From one casual of mine he picked this sentence. After dinner, the men moved into the living room. I explained to the professor that this was Rosss way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up. There must, as we know, be a comma after every move, made by men, on this earth. – James Thurber
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybodys guess. – James Thurber
The Miss America contest is the most perfectly rendered theater in our culture, for it so perfectly captures what we yearn for: a low-class ritual, a polished restatement of vulgarity, that wants to open the door to high-class respectability by way of plain middle-class anxiety and ambition. – Gerald Early