“The child's laughter is pure until he first laughs at a clown.”

“One day he said, "I'll tell this townHow it feels to be an unfunny clown."And he told them all why he looked so sad,And he told them all why he felt so bad.He told of Pain and Rain and Cold,He told of Darkness in his soul,And after he finished his tale of woe,Did everyone cry? Oh no, no, no,They laughed until they shook the trees...And while the world laughed outside.Cloony the Clown sat down and cried.”

“The clown may be the source of mirth, but - who shall make the clown laugh?”

“I think I'll be a clown when I get grown,' said Dill.Jem and I stopped in our tracks.Yes sir, a clown,' he said. 'There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.'You got it backwards, Dill,' said Jem. 'Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them.'Well I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

“No clowns were funny. That was the whole purpose of a clown. People laughed at clowns, but only out of nervousness. The point of clowns was that, after watching them, anything else that happened seemed enjoyable.”

“Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them." "Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”