“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

THE FAMOUS QUOTE ABOUT DYING VS. COMEDY: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”         Actor Peter O’Toole, playing the washed-up actor Alan Swann        In the 1982 movie My Favorite Year          Precursors of this widely-quoted line in the movie have been attributed to English actors Edmund Kean and Edmund Gwenn (among others)

TONY BLAIR'S POST-TRUMP, POST BREXIT VERSION: “Outrage is easy; strategy is hard…The emotional response to the rightist populism sweeping the West is one of protest and dismay. But if there is to be an effective fightback, there has to be a cool analysis of what is happening, why and what can be done...The politics of the progressive center has not died, but it needs reinventing and re-energizing. For liberal democracy to survive and thrive, we must build a new coalition that is popular, not populist.”        Tony Blair        Former leader of the British Labour Party; Prime Minister of Britain from 1997 to 2007        In an op-ed in the New York Times, March 3, 2017

A HUMORIST’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Dying is easy. Parking is hard.”        Art Buchwald(1925-2007)        American humorist and journalist         A quip he made while dying from kidney failure         Quoted in Time magazine, shortly after his death

A POW’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Cook said POWs must realize simple truths: dying is easy, living is hard, and surviving the day is always in doubt. Thus, he said, to awaken each morning to a new day is a victory.”           Donald L. Price          Retired Marine Colonel and author         In his book The First Marine Captured in Vietnam (2007)        Referring to Medal of Honor recipient, U.S. Marine Col. Donald G. Cook, who died in a Viet Cong prison camp in 1967

A REAL LIFE SUPERHERO’S COUNTERQUOTE: “I've slipped into that ‘numb zone’ many times. That’s when creating humor and appreciating it becomes very difficult, but even more necessary....If you get stuck in it for a long period of time you may end up going back to square one, when life after a catastrophe has no meaning....I agree with the dying comedian; sometimes humor is hard but it’s worth it.”        Christopher Reeve (1952-2004)        American actor and patient advocate        In his inspiring book Nothing is Impossible (2004)

THE SYMPATHY VS. EMPATHY VARIATION: “Sympathy is easy. It's always given from a position of power...But when you have empathy, you empathize with the person. You put yourself on equal footing. Sympathy is easy. Empathy is hard.”         Dennis Lehane         American novelist        In a commencement speech he gave at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2004        Quoted in Here We Stand: 600 Inspiring Messages the World’s Best Commencement Addresses (2009)

THE LUST VS. LOVE VS. LIKE VARIATION: “Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important.”        Carl Reiner (b. 1922)        American comedian, actor, director and producer           A comment he made in an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2005 that is still widely quoted

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