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I have the reputation for having read all of Henry James. Which would argue a misspent youth and middle age.

James Thurber

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James Thurber
Age: 66 †
Born: 1894
Born: December 18
Died: 1961
Died: November 2
Autobiographer
Cartoonist
Drawer
Humorist
Journalist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Columbus
Ohio
James Grover Thurber
Youth
Middle
Age
Misspent
Read
Henry
Would
James
Argue
Arguing
Reputation

More quotes by James Thurber

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Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.
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Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority.
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The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
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Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
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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).
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Dogs are obsessed with being happy.
James Thurber
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Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling 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?'
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My opposition to Interviews lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.
James Thurber
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I hate women because they have brought into the currency of our language such expressions as all righty and yes indeedy and hundreds of others.
James Thurber
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Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.
James Thurber
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It's a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.
James Thurber
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No male can beat a female in the long run because they have it over us in sheer, damn longevity.
James Thurber
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I always begin at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read toward the right and I recommend this method.
James Thurber
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The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
James Thurber
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Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.
James Thurber
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Last night I dreamed of a small consolation enjoyed only by the blind: Nobody knows the trouble I've not seen!
James Thurber
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Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
James Thurber
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When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.
James Thurber
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But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
James Thurber
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You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
James Thurber