Rosten, Leo (Leo Rosten)

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is (merely) to be "happy." I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter: to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.
-- Leo Rosten

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

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others.
-- Leo Rosten

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.
-- Leo Rosten

Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.
-- Leo Rosten

The only thing I can say about W. C. Fields ... is this: Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
-- Leo Rosten

A conservative is someone who admires radicals a century after they're dead.
-- Leo Rosten

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others.
-- Leo Rosten

Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.
-- Leo Rosten

Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined.
-- Leo Rosten

Dogs are getting bigger, according to a leading dog manufacturer.
-- Leo Rosten

Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.
-- Leo Rosten

First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.
-- Leo Rosten

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
-- Leo Rosten

For some not to be martyrs is martyrdom indeed.
-- Leo Rosten

Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable.
-- Leo Rosten

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
-- Leo Rosten

Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.
-- Leo Rosten

I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.
-- Leo Rosten

I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I'm not old yet!
-- Leo Rosten

If at first you don't succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong.
-- Leo Rosten

If you're going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
-- Leo Rosten

Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.
-- Leo Rosten

Satire is focused bitterness.
-- Leo Rosten

Some things are so unexpected that no one is prepared for them.
-- Leo Rosten

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

Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.
-- Leo Rosten

We see things as we are, not as they are.
-- Leo Rosten

ords must surely be counted among the most powerful drugs man ever invented.
-- Leo Rosten