Comedy And Tragedy Quotes

“[Excerpt from Kenneth Brown testimony] Great comics throughout literature have always disguised by comedy, through laughter, through jokes, an underlying theme which is very serious, and perhaps needs laughter because it is also painful...”
― Lenny Bruce, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

“Suffering, loving, and exhibiting compassion along with witnessing the tragic beauty and glory of a passionate life filled with birth and death, comedy and tragedy, all serve to give direction to our subterranean voice of decency and dignity, which effuses naturally from a cascade of affection for humankind.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“If your narrative is not persuasive, the world will be reluctant; if it's emotional, the world buys it; if it touches the heart, you've won a soul.”
― Martin Uzochukwu Ugwu

“But as I said, one day only has so many hours and I cannot do it all at once. Besides, the alcohol was already bought and paid for. It would be a sin to let it go to waste.”
― Lucian Vicovan, Another fall from grace

“Basically, control is just an illusion. Far too many factors contribute to everything that happens during a day, even during an hour, a week, a month, a year. And that's the end of the matter. You think you control something because you think you recognize a certain pattern, so you imagine that you’re always gonna achieve the same results with the same actions. Until something unexpected happens.”
― Lucian Vicovan, Another dance in the flames

“Did you attend church last Sunday?” I asked with no warning. The men all looked at each other.
“No, sir. At least I wasn’t at church this past Sunday,” the old man answered first. The others followed and mumbled their negation under their breath.
"Aha, did you happen to find the irrefutable evidence that God is nonexistent?"
“No, sir!”
― Lucian Vicovan, Another dance in the flames

“I thought I was on the track for something good. And you know, the day has only so many hours. One can’t fit everything they want to do in one day.”
― Lucian Vicovan, Another dance in the flames

“COMPRESSION SOCKS ARE A REAL HOSE TO PUT ON”
― Lynn Byk, The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch

“RECORDING THE PAST WITH A DULL PENCIL IS POINTLESS”
― Lynn Byk, The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch

“Shrewd Shakespeare understood that the paradox of drama also ticks at the heart of life itself: we can't truly bear, understand or transcend tragedy without humour and we definitely appreciate levity more when unburdened from pitch darkness. Deepest drama often demands a sudden crash of laughter's lightning bolt. Surgically-wielded comic relief, used with acute awareness of audience and moment, doesn't merely lighten a heavy scene; it provides the critical human counterpoint, a vital exhale allowing the audience to bear the weight, and feel it all the more intensely when tension returns, effectively disproving the literally-minded misconception that to laugh at something is to disrespect it or not take it seriously. This profound effect isn't just theatrical technique; it taps into a timeless human impulse—gallows humour, whistling past the graveyard—a deep-seated capacity to find release and digest life's bitterest truths, even in the face of overwhelming gravity.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Cycle of the Midnight Ape by Stewart Stafford

Janus creature of paradox,
Liquid hostage of conscience,
Swinging midnight's ape,
On cartwheel chandeliers.

This being's bender reveal —
Of the existential, maddening itch,
To sling aside life’s burdens,
And slake its raging thirst.

An anthropological anomaly,
Naked in its contradictions,
A déjà vu loop grinds on,
This peerless hellraiser royal.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford