Time & Perspective Quote by Paul Simon

Paul Simon is describing a balancing act that’s less about tone than about trust. “Humor and seriousness at the same time” isn’t a cute trick; it’s a way of telling the listener: I’m not selling you a sermon, I’m letting you in on something true. The “special little thing” is that rare vibe where a song can feel light on its feet and still land emotionally. It’s the difference between a lyric that preaches and one that confides.

The warning about getting “pompous” is doing heavy lifting. Simon isn’t just allergic to grandiosity; he’s naming how quickly art can turn into self-parody when the maker starts performing importance. Pompousness is a kind of over-credentialing: the voice insisting it matters, instead of earning that feeling through detail, rhythm, and a wink of self-awareness. Humor punctures the ego before it can inflate, which lets seriousness arrive without resistance. You laugh, so your guard drops; then the line slips in a bruise.

Contextually, this fits Simon’s whole method: conversational phrasing, precise observation, and melodies that glide even when the subject is loneliness, faith, aging, or national drift. The joke is rarely a punchline; it’s a pressure valve. It keeps the singer from becoming a prophet and the audience from becoming a congregation. In pop music especially, where sincerity can curdle into branding, Simon’s ethic is almost moral: take the feeling seriously, never take yourself too seriously.