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Dorothy Parker Quotes

Poet

Dorothy Parker, an American poet, playwright, and critic, was born on August 22, 1893, and died on June 7, 1967. Known for her wit, satire, and humor, she is a prominent figure in 20th-century American literature.

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All Ifs Men Knows People Thinking Book Writing Love Giving Should Heart Humor World May Two Way Women Firsts Art Fun

Famous Dorothy Parker Quotes

“It's easier to write about those you hate — just as it's easier to criticize a bad play or a bad book.”

Writing Book Play Hate Easier Criticize

Book:Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

Source: Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

“[On Edna Ferber's Ice Palace] ... the book, which is going to be a movie, has the plot and characters of a book which is going to be a movie.”

Book Character Ice Plot Palaces

Book:Dorothy Parker in Her Own Words

Source: Dorothy Parker in Her Own Words

“[On Lou Tellegen's Women Have Been Kind:] The book ... has all the elegance of a quirked little finger and all the glitter of a pair of new rubbers.”

Kind Littles Has Beens Book Fingers Pairs Elegance Glitter Rubber

Author:Dorothy Parker

“Anthologists are lazy fellows who like to spend a quiet evening at home raiding good books.”

Book Home Quiet Fellows Evening Lazy Good Book Raiding

Author:Dorothy Parker

“... if this world were anything near what it should be there would be no more need of a Book Week than there would be a of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”

Ifs World Needs Should Children Book Would Be Reading Week This World Cruelty Reading Books Prevention

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“Why, after all, should readers never be harrowed? Surely there is enough happiness in life without having to go to books for it.”

Should Book Enough Reader Life Happiness

Author:Dorothy Parker

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

Should Book Reading Force Novel Drink Criticism Critics Wit Beer Thrown Book Reading Classic Insult

Author:Dorothy Parker

“You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“The plot is so tired that even this reviewer, who in infancy was let drop by a nurse with the result that she has ever since been mystified by amateur coin tricks, was able to guess the identity of the murderer from the middle of the book.”

Book Able Results Middle Identity Tired Tricks Plot Nurse Coins Murderer Infancy Reviewers

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“His books are exciting and powerful and — if I may filch the word from the booksy ones — pulsing.”

Ifs May Book Powerful Exciting

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“Like many a better one before me, I have gone down under the force of numbers, under the books and books and books that keep coming out and coming out and coming out, shoals of them, spates of them, flash floods of them, too blame many books, and no sign of an end.”

Book Ends Force Numbers Gone Blame Coming Out Flash Flood Flash Floods

Author:Dorothy Parker

“I like best to have one book in my hand, and a stack of others on the floor beside me, so as to know the supply of poppy and mandragora will not run out before the small hours.”

Knows Book Hands Running Hours Poppies

Author:Dorothy Parker

“I'm of the glamorous ladies At whose beckoning history shook. But you are a man, and see only my pan, So I stay at home with a book.”

Men Book Home Glamorous Stay At Home Beckoning

Book:Not So Deep as a Well

Source: Not So Deep as a Well

“But I give you my word, in the entire book there is nothing that cannot be said aloud in mixed company. And there is, also, nothing that makes you a bit the wiser. I wonder--oh, what will you think of me--if those two statements do not verge upon the synonymous.”

Ifs Thinking Giving Said Two Book Bits Company Wonder Statements Wiser Think Of Me Verge

Author:Dorothy Parker

“I'll think about something else. I'll just sit quietly. If I could sit still. If I could sit still, maybe I could read. Oh, all the books are about people who love each other, truly and sweetly. What do they want to write about that for? Don't they know it isn't true? Don't they know it's a lie, it's a God-damned lie? What do they have to tell about that for, when they know how it hurts?”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Want Writing Stills Book Lying Hurt Know How If I Could It Hurts Love Each Other

Book:Complete Stories

Source: Complete Stories

“This must be a gift book. That is to say a book, which you wouldn't take on any other terms.”

Book Funny Reading Term Reading Books

Book:Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

Source: Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

“I don't want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”

Want Book Reading Too Much Cutting Reviews

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

About the Author

Born: August 22, 1893
Died: June 7, 1967
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 347

Books & Sources

Dorothy Parker in Her Own WordsRelated source material

Complete StoriesRelated source material

A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces byRelated source material

Dorothy ParkerRelated source material

Not So Deep as a WellRelated source material

Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy ParkerRelated source material

The Sayings of Dorothy ParkerRelated source material

The Complete Poems of Dorothy ParkerRelated source material

Collected poems: Not so deep as a wellRelated source material

The Portable Dorothy ParkerRelated source material

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