I'm tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period.
Interpretation
This quote humorously expresses frustration with excessive wordiness in communication.
Steve Martin's quote highlights the importance of brevity in communication, suggesting that sometimes, simplicity and efficiency are more effective than using many words to convey a message. By emphasizing the use of proper punctuation over unnecessary letters, it reflects a playful disdain for verbosity and encourages clear expression.
In practice
This quote could be used in a writing workshop to encourage participants to focus on concise expression.
When I first started doing my comedy act, I just desperately needed material. So I took literally everything I knew how to do on stage with me, which was juggling, magic and banjo and my little comedy routines. I always felt the audience sorta tolerated the serious musical parts while I was doing my comedy.
You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do.
I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.
...it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
Reviews for someone like me come in three packages. One is justifiable praise, the second is justifiable criticism, and the third is, "This is only published because he's a celebrity."
If he thinks he would harm Mirabelle, he would back away. But he does not yet understand when and how people are hurt. He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
Flattery is all right so long as you don't inhale.
Hungry Joe collected lists of fatal diseases and arranged them in alphabetical order so that he could put his finger without delay on any one he wanted to worry about.
IsnΒ΄t it strange how wealth is always wasted on the rich?
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
Being a humorist is not a voluntary thing. You can tell this because in a situation where saying a funny thing will cause a lot of trouble, a humorist will still say the funny thing. No matter how inappropriate.
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