Home / Quotes / Quote by James Thurber

Quote by James Thurber

“A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.”

Quote by James Thurber

Book:James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)

Work

James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)

This compilation showcases the wit and creativity of James Thurber, with a selection of his most renowned short stories and accompanying illustrations. It includes the famous story 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,' which has become a cultural touchstone for the concept of daydreaming and escapism. more

Author

James Thurber was a renowned American cartoonist and writer. Born on December 8, 1894, and died on November 2, 1961, Thurber is known for his humor and satire in his works, which have had a profound impact on American literature and cartoon art. more

You May Also Like

“Surely no other American institution is so bound around and tightened up by rules, strictures, adages, and superstitions as the Broadway theatre.”

Theater Institutions Bounds Theatre Superstitions Broadway Adages Broadway Theatre

Author:James Thurber

“Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.”

Comedy Tragedy Insight Outlook

Author:James Thurber

“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 getting somewhere, whether it seems to move or not.”

Writing Seems Moving Fun Likes Dread

Book:Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

Source: Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

“My drawings have been described as pre-internationalist, meaning that they were finished before the ideas for them had occurred to me. I shall not argue the point.”

Has Beens Ideas Finished Arguing Drawing

Author:James Thurber

“A peril of the night road is that flecks of dust and streaks of bug blood on the windshield look to me like old admirals in uniform, or crippled apple women, or the front edge of barges, and I whirl out of their way, thus going into ditches and fields and up on front lawns, endangering the life of authentic admirals and apple women who may be out on the roads for a breath of air before retiring.”

Source: The Thurber letters: the wit, wisdom, and surprising life of James Thurber

“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.”

Knows Humans Long Self Play Lasts Human Beings Destruction Theater Entertainment Seeds Certainty Spite Broadway Self Destruction Certainty Of Death

Book:Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

Source: Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

“One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, co-operation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs. He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight.”

Source: Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

“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.”

Doe Humor Form Raised Wit Cruelty Irony Sarcasm Franklin Innuendo High Points

Author:James Thurber

“In an extensive reading of recent books by psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and inspirationalists, I have discovered that they all suffer from one or more of these expression-complexes: italicizing, capitalizing, exclamation-pointing, multiple-interrogating, and itemizing. These are all forms of what the psychos themselves would call, if they faced their condition frankly, Rhetorical-Over-Compensation.”

Ifs Book Form Suffering Reading Psychology Conditions Expression Complexes Multiple Pointing Compensation Psychiatrist Psychologist Psycho Rhetorical Exclamation Extensive Reading

Author:James Thurber

“Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere; that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn't got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady's watch are revolving more purposely than he is.”

Source: Writings and Drawings