"People's Parties"
Songs
“Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you're probably watching the wrong channel.”
“It's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.”
Source: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Herewith: Music, Words and Photographs
“You gotta laugh because if you didn't you'd cry”
Parade interview http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/AStephen_Colbert (23 September 2007)
Variant: You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
Context: Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
“The act of laughing releases some nice chemical into your brain, you feel good and it's free.”
Source: Sam's Letters to Jennifer
“You can laugh or you can cry. It is up to you which one you do.”
"Entertainment or Education? (1936)
Context: The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the way it will always be. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is no escape for him. That's great art — Everything is self-evident. I am made to cry with those who cry, and laugh with those who laugh. But the theater-goer in the epic theater says: I would never have thought that. You can't do that. That's very strange, practically unbelievable. That has to stop. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is an escape for him. That's great art — nothing is self-evident. I am made to laugh about those who cry, and cry about those who laugh.
