“All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter.”
Source: Requiem for a Dream
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Hubert Selby Jr. 39
American writer 1928–2004Related quotes
"Palm Sunday", a sermon delivered at St. Clement's Church, New York City (ndg), originally published in The Nation as "Hypocrites You Always Have With You" (ndg)
Palm Sunday (1981)
Context: Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward — and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner.
“The happy consciousness is shaky enough—a thin surface over fear, frustration, and disgust.”
Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 76
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
Interview Public Radio International (October 2006)
Various interviews
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
“The source of all humor is not laughter, but sorrow.”
Variant: The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven.
“Laughter is higher than all pain.”