What stops me from taking myself seriously, even though I am essentially a serious person, is that I find myself extremely ridiculous, not in the sense of the small-scale ridiculousness of slap-stick comedy, but rather in the sense of ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and that manifests itself in the simplest actions and the most extraordinary gestures.

I think it's really tragic when people get serious about stuff. It's such an absurdity to take anything really seriously ... I make an honest attempt not to take anything seriously: I worked that attitude out about the time I was eighteen, I mean, what does it all mean when you get right down to it, what's the story here? Being alive is so weird.

I don’t take my life seriously, but I do take what I do – in my life – seriously -

It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously

Some things are too important to be taken seriously.

"I don't believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously."

[<i>Writer’s Digest Interview</i> (Robert Jacobs, <i>Writer’s Digest</i>, February 1976)]

I have noticed that when I am most serious people are apt to laugh at me, and indeed when after a lapse of time I have read passages that I wrote from the fullness of my heart I have been tempted to laugh at myself. It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless it is that man, the ephemeral inhabitant of an insignificant planet, with all his pain and all his striving is but a jest in an eternal mind.

Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

To take seriously something so unserious means to lose all one's own seriousness

People often think I'm a faker, but I'm usually honest, in a certain way — in such a way that often nobody believes me!

Too many people confuse being serious with being solemn.

I assume that maybe you are not serious, but sincere.

I'm so misunderstood that people misunderstand me even when I tell them I'm misunderstood.