I turned on the pillow with a little moan, and at this juncture Jeeves entered with the vital oolong. I clutched at it like a drowning man at a straw hat.
P. G. WodehouseRead
It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote humorously criticizes a lengthy explanation that overshadowed a simple need for an apology.
In this quote, P.G. Wodehouse highlights the absurdity of over-explaining situations that require straightforward communication. The speaker's frustration with a long-winded explanation about a book, when a simple apology would suffice, exemplifies how communication can often become unnecessarily convoluted, leading to boredom and irritation.
Themes
CommunicationHumorApologyCritiqueSimplicity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about effective communication, you might use this quote to illustrate the importance of brevity.
More from P. G. Wodehouse
All quotes →While not exactly disgruntled, he was far from feeling gruntled. He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
P. G. WodehouseRead
She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season
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It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.
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Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is wiser not to stir them.
P. G. WodehouseRead
It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.
P. G. WodehouseRead
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