James Thurber (1894 – 1961)
American humorist and cartoonist.
Sophistication might be described as the ability to cope gracefully with a situation involving the presence of a formidable menace to one's poise and prestige (such as the butler, or the man under the bed — but never the husband).
"To hell with the handkerchief," said Walter Mitty scornfully. He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.
Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, "How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?" and avoid "How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?"
Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp, vindictive glance.
If I have sometimes seemed to make fun of Woman, I assure you it has only been for the purpose of egging her on.
I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
In order to be eligible to play it was necessary for him to keep up in his studies, a very difficult matter, for while he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter.
With 60 staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and a definite hardening of the paragraphs.
Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.
The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.
She came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.
Le coeur a ses raisons, Mrs. Bence, que la raison ne connait pas.
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.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
The dog has seldom been successful in pulling Man up to its level of sagacity, but Man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.
It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.