My first words, as I was being born [...] I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.
Interpretation
This quote humorously reflects on the experience of birth and the irony of a child's first thoughts.
In this quote, Stephen Fry uses humor to illustrate the absurdity and irony of a newbornβs initial perception of the world. The suggestion that a baby would make a vow to never 'go up' again implies a conscious awareness and an exaggerated commentary on the ups and downs of life that we encounter from the moment we enter the world. It highlights a comedic perspective on the experiences that shape our journey from infancy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a humorous speech about parenting and the surprises of childbirth.
I used many times to touch my own chest and feel, under its asthmatic quiver, the engine of the heart and lungs and blood and feel amazed at what I sensed was the enormity of the power I possessed. Not magical power, but real power. The power simply to go on, the power to endure, that is power enough, but I felt I had also the power to create, to add, to delight, to amaze and to transform.
To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.
There comes a time when the blankness of the future is just so extreme, it's like such a black wall of nothingness. Not of bad things like a cave full of monsters and so, you're afraid of entering it. It's just nothingness, the void, emptiness and it is just horrible. It's like contemplating a future-less future and so you just want to step out of it. The monstrosity of being alive overwhelms you.
As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth.
It's now very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended by that'.
You can't just say there is a God because well, the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children. You have to account for the fact that almost all animals in the wild live under stress with not enough to eat and will die violent and bloody deaths. There is not any way that you can just choose the nice bits and say that means there is a God and ignore the true fact of what nature is.
No humorist is under any obligation to provide answers and probably if you were to delve into the literary history of humour it's probably all about not providing answers because the humorist essentially says: this is the way things are.
Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.
I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible. I felt I was deliberately being encouraged and I was overwhelmed.
The one unforgivable sin is to be boring.
Listen, three eyes," he said, "don't you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
What a refreshing mind you have, young man. There really is nothing quite like total ignorance, is there?
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