Mignon McLaughlin on Life

"Many of us go through life feeling as an actor might feel who does not like his part, and does not believe in the play."

"Theatre audiences can't be made to think and cry: at best, they can be made to think and laugh, or to feel and cry."

"Few novels or plays could exist without at least one troublemaker in the group, and perhaps life couldn’t either."

"Neurosis is no worse than a bad cold; you ache all over, and it's made you a mess, but you won't die from it."

"Your money or your life." We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does."

"When we first fall in love, we feel that we know all there is to know about life, and perhaps we are right."

"I'm always there to tell people that their life is not that bad. I wish it was easy to follow that advice."

"How can a man marry wisely in his twenties? The girl he's going to wind up wanting hasn't even been born."

"One of life's few really reliable pleasures: to have a family you love, and to leave them for a week."

"Broadway audiences are dependably square. "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch" always gets a laugh; spoken by a little old lady, it brings down the house."

"Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves."

"For the happiest life, days should he rigorously planned, nights left open to chance."

"We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us manage to remain greedy."

"The neurotic believes that life has meaning, but that his life hasn't."

"Air that has been much quarreled in becomes very hard to breathe."

"To smoke or not to smoke: I can make of either a life work."

"Neurotics dream of a good life, or a great suicide note."

"Life's most painful condition: to be almost a celebrity."

"Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix."