1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker Quotes
page 4

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.

From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary works published in such magazines as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in her being placed on the Hollywood blacklist.

Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker". Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. August 1893 – 7. June 1967  •  Other names Dorothy Parkerová
Dorothy Parker photo
Dorothy Parker: 172 quotes28 likes

Dorothy Parker Quotes

“One more drink and I'd have been under the host.”

Dorothy Parker

As quoted in Try and Stop Me by Bennett Cerf (1944)
Misattributed as quatrain beginning “I like to have a martini,” (see below).

“So seeing that there is nothing further to say, I shall go right on talking about The Circle, thus proving that I am a born reviewer of plays. p. 256”

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 (2014) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25758762M/Dorothy_Parker_Complete_Broadway_1918-1923, Chapter 5: 1922

“72 suburbs in search of a city”

Dorothy Parker

This description of Los Angeles, often attributed to Parker, seems to instead be based on Aldous Huxley having referred to L.A. http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2013/08/misquoting_dorothy_parker.php as &quot;nineteen suburbs in search of a metropolis&quot; in his 1925 book Americana. In turn, he was likely quoting someone else. <br class="br">Misattributed

“How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews”

Dorothy Parker

This is actually by William Norman Ewer (1885-1976) in Week-End Book (1924); This has sometimes been misattributed to Parker, who was herself of Jewish heritage, in the form:
How odd of God
To choose the Jews
Similar sayings have also been attributed to Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
'It wasn't odd;
the Jews chose God
Cecil Brown
But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God,
But spurn the Jews
Leo Rosten
Not odd
Of God
The goyim
Annoy 'im.
Misattributed

“The ones I like … are "cheque" and "enclosed."”

Dorothy Parker

On the most beautiful words in the English language, as quoted in The New York Herald Tribune (12 December 1932)

“Bringing in a wounded soldier is getting to be rather like waving an American flag at the end of an act. One cannot harbor feelings of unmixed admiration for the playwright who will hide behind either of them. p. 250”

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 (2014) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25758762M/Dorothy_Parker_Complete_Broadway_1918-1923, Chapter 4: 1921

“Almost overnight, Dorothy Parker was transformed from a woman of letters into a gin-soaked quote machine, with a martini in one hand and a dagger in the other. p. xiii”

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 (2014) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25758762M/Dorothy_Parker_Complete_Broadway_1918-1923