James Grover Thurber war ein US-amerikanischer Schriftsteller und Zeichner, der vor allem durch seine Kurzgeschichten und Fabeln bekannt wurde, die überwiegend in dem Magazin The New Yorker erstveröffentlicht wurden. Wikipedia
„Du kannst genauso auf die Nase fallen, wie du dich zuweit zurücklehnen kannst.“
"The Bear Who Let It Alone", The New Yorker (29. April 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940)
Original engl.: "You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."
„Ein Martini ist genau richtig. Zwei sind zu viele. Drei sind nicht genug.“
zitiert im Time Magazine (New York, 15. August 1960) aus einem Interview mit Glenna Syse von der Chicago Sun-Times
Original engl.: "One (martini) is all right, two is too many, three is not enough."
“A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make any sense.”
"The Weaver and the Worm", The New Yorker ( 11 August 1956 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1956/08/11/1956_08_11_019_TNY_CARDS_000252308); Further Fables for Our Time (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.”
"The Courtship of Arthur and Al", The New Yorker (26 August 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). Parody of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Better to have loved and lost/than never to have loved at all."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
“Discussion in America means dissent.”
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
Quoted in New York Times (21 February 1960).
Letters and interviews
Television interview with Edward R. Murrow on TV show Small World, CBS-TV (25 March 1959); transcript published in New York Post
Letters and interviews
"The Unicorn in the Garden", The New Yorker (31 October 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). This is a fable where a man sees a Unicorn in his garden, and his wife reports the matter to have him taken away, to the "booby-hatch". Online text with illustration by Thurber http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/unicorn1.html
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.”
The New Yorker (2 August 1930)
From other writings
My Life and Hard Times (1933) page 33, Harper & Row, New York.
From other writings
Preface to A Thurber Garland (1955)
From other writings
“He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes.”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (4 November 1939). Parody of "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like."
"Word Dance — Part One", A Thurber Carnival (1960)
Cartoon captions
Variante: He knew all about art, but he didn't know what you like.
“Love is blind, but desire just doesn't give a good goddam.”
sic
"The Clothes Moth and the Luna Moth", The New Yorker (date unknown); Further Fables for Our Time (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
Letter to Henry Brandon after an interview with him, explaining his opposition to interviews; quoted by Brandon in As We Are (1961)
Letters and interviews
“He who hesitates is sometimes saved.”
"The Glass in the Field", The New Yorker (31 October 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). This is the moral of a fable in which several birds reject a Goldfinch's report that he ran into "crystallized air" while flying across a field, where workmen had left a large plate of glass upright. The Swallow rejects the offer to come along with others and prove the Goldfinch wrong.
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“I am not a dog lover. A dog lover to me means a dog that is in love with another dog.”
"I Like Dogs", For Men (April 1939); reprinted in People Have More Fun Than Anybody (1994); slightly paraphrased in "And So to Medve", Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings
“I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you?”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (22 April 1939); "A Miscellany", Alarms and Diversions (1957)
Cartoon captions
New York Times Magazine (7 December 1958).
Letters and interviews
"An Introduction", The Fireside Book of Dog Stories (Simon and Schuster, 1943); reprinted in Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings
“The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.”
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1942)
From other fiction
The New Yorker (2 August 1930), discussing cartooning
From other writings
“The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.”
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961). The piece was "a response" to an award Thurber received from the Ohioana Library Association in 1953.
From Lanterns and Lances
“A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.”
note for "a future fable", "Such a Phrase as Drifts Through Dreams", Holiday Magazine; reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
Quoted in New York Post (30 June 1955)
Letters and interviews
“Moral: Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going.”
"The Wolf Who Went Places", The New Yorker, Page 28 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1956-05-19#folio=028 (19 May 1956); Further Fables for Our Time http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnhbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22moral+Where+most+of+us+end+up+there+is+no+knowing+but+the+hellbent+get+where+they+are+going%22&pg=PA28#v=onepage (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
My Life And Hard Times, referring to a fellow Ohio State student and football star.
From other writings
Cartoon caption (1944), in which a dinner host is speaking to his guests about the wine, reproduced in The Thurber Carnival (1945).
Cartoon captions
“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (27 July 1935)
Borrowing from Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670 (published posthumously): ""Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point""
Cartoon captions
“Comedy has to be done en clair.”
You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.
Letter, March 11, 1954, to Malcolm Cowley. Collecting Himself (1989)
Letters and interviews
"The Case for Comedy", Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
“Women are wiser than men, because they know less and understand more.”
Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.
https://allauthor.com/quotes/42366/
From other writings
