Leo Rosten Quotes

Truth is stranger than fiction fiction has to make sense.

O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath...

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

Why did God give me two ears and one mouth? So that I will hear more and talk less.

Anybody who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behi...

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.

Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.

Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.

People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.

First-rate people hire first-rate people second-rate people hire third-rate people.

We see things as we are, not as they are.

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the str...

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.

I have admired W.C. Fields since the day he advanced upon Baby LeRoy with an ice pick. Any man who h...

The purpose of life is not to be happy—but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it mak...