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About this quote

What does it mean?
Humor comes from looking back on chaotic emotions calmly.
In plain terms
Jokes happen when you remember past messes without feeling them.
What can you take from it?
Time helps turn pain into comedy.

Where it applies

  • storytelling
  • coping
  • writing

Putting it to work

  • write about past struggles
  • wait to process emotions

Questions to consider

  • How does time change pain?
  • Why do we laugh at bad times?

Another view

Not all trauma becomes funny with time.

More from James Thurber

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  3. We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty…

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