Quote

I don't care if the audience is 600 Saul Bellows; I'm going to knock them dead with a comedy routine. I'm out there as a missionary for literature because, if people laugh and enjoy themselves, they might actually do something as bizarre as reading the book.

— T. C. Boyle

Sentiment: NEGATIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

If I get a hard audience they are not going to get away until they laugh. Those seven laughs a minute - I've got to have them.

— Ken Dodd

I try to make the majority of my audience laugh. That's my audience. They'll laugh at the dead terrorist.

— Jeff Dunham

I don't laugh that much, but I do like humorous books, and I like to entertain readers that way.

— Jonathan Ames

With comedy, it's really hard to tell if something's working on the page - you really need the actors to bring it alive. The scariest part is if people will laugh or not.

— Maggie Carey

I think Britain has this tradition which suggests that if you make the readers laugh too much, you can't really be serious. Whereas, I think one of the functions laughter can perform in a book, as in life, is that it's a reaction to genuine horror.

— Mark Haddon

I always try to keep in mind that while the characters in a farce may find themselves in outrageous dilemmas, and may behave in a way that the audience finds amusing, the characters themselves don't have the consolation of knowing they're in a comedy.

— Rupert Holmes

When I think of the books I love, there's always a little laughter in the dark.

— Zadie Smith

When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read.

— Sinclair Lewis

✗Opposing Perspectives

You don't service a big, fun premise comedy and then shoot yourself in the foot with too much irony. You need the audience to invest in the fun and the warmth and generally care about the characters.

— Shawn Levy

If there is an audience out there for me, I want them to be surprised when the next book comes out.

— Stewart O'Nan