Dorothy Parker Quotes

Art is a form of catharsis.

art

Innocence is a desirable thing.

Scratch a lover, and find a foe.

love and hate

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

Any stigma will do to beat a dogma.

dogma

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.

dogma

They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.

adventure

[We look like] a road company of the last supper.

reunion

I was the Toast of Two Continents: Greenland and Australia.

fame

Lips that taste of tears, they say
Are the best for kissing.

tears kiss

Lips that taste of tears, they say,Are the best for kissing.

Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

wit

Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.

I require three things in a man: he must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.

men

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

money

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

critics

Four be the things I'd have been better without: love, curiosity, freckles and doubt.

love

Go to the Martin Beck Theatre and watch Katherine Hepburn run the gamut of emotions from A to B.

critics

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open, and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.

love

Years are only garments, and you either wear them with style all your life, or else you go dowdy to the grave.

years age

Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness.

dullness manners

There was never a place for her in the ranks of the terrible, slow army of cautious. She ran ahead, where there were no path.

There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

wit

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

suicide

And there was that wholesale libel on a Yale prom. If all the girls attending it were laid end to end, Mrs. Parker said, she wouldn't be at all surprised.

If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style.  The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.

writers

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it and it darts away.