Paul Krassner Quotes

Avoid internalizing society's sexism, racism, ageism - pick an ism, any ism.

Since I was both an atheist and an absurdist, I had decided that the most absurd thing I could do would be to develop an intimate relationship with the God I didn't believe in.

English is my second language. Laughter is my first.

There is indeed a business like show business. It's the news.

As long as the government can arbitrarily decide which substances are legal and which are illegal, then those who remain behind bars for illegal substances are political prisoners

I think [audiences are] more aware now of the contradictions in mainstream culture, the phony piety that permeates society, the inhumane hypocrisy.

I had become an atheist at the age of thirteen, when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.

Irreverence is our only sacred cow.

Pope John Paul would be more popular if he called himself Pope John Paul George and Ringo.

I guess I'm a spiritual secularist, if that's not an oxymoron. My paths of secularism and spirituality are the same: I try to do the appropriate thing at each moment.

People don’t like to be lectured to, but if you can make them laugh, their defenses come down, and for the time being they’ve accepted whatever truth is embedded in your humor.

For years, reality has been nipping at the heels of satire. Now, it's finally caught up. I don't need to make this stuff up.

The more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. But too often sarcasm passes for irony, name-calling passes for insight, bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit, and lowest-common-denominator jokes pass for analysis. Satire should have a point of view. It doesn't have to get a belly laugh. It does have to present criticism.

Watch yourself as though you were observing a Martian.

I Used To Believe In Reincarnation, But That Was In a Past Life.

I am neither for conformity nor non-conformity. I am for individuality. If one's individuality is in effect non-conformity, then so be it. But basically, one's individuality consists of conformity--to one's self.