I discovered [Perelman] when I was in high school. I came across certain pieces that he had written and I immediately was stunned by them. I thought they were just the best and the funniest things that I had ever read, and not at all heavy-handed, which most humour writers are…. Perelman … is just as light as a soufflé. What happens to you when you read Perelman and you're a young writer is fatal because his style seeps into you. He's got such a pronounced, overwhelming comic style that it's very hard not to be influenced by him. (p. 667)

Woody Allen, "Perelman's Revenge or the Gifts of Providence, Rhode Island," in The Listener (© British Broadcasting Corp. 1979; reprinted by permission of Woody Allen), Vol. 102, No. 2637, November 15, 1979, pp. 667-69.