Parker, Dorothy
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), witty and courageous, got her start by writing theatre criticism for Vanity Fair. Known for her acid wit, she was one of the founding members of the Algonquin Roundtable, an exclusive group of eminent New York City writers in the early twentieth century.
Parker also wrote screenplays and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for A Star is Born. Though her life was turbulent, she made an indelible mark on American literature. Her most noted stories and poems include: Big Blonde, Enough Rope, Here Lies and Laments for the Living.
Major Works
- Complete Stories
- Complete Poems
- The Ladies of the Corridor
- Dorothy Parker: In Her Own Words
- Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker
Autobiographies and Biographies about Dorothy Parker
- Dorothy Parker: In Her Own Words by Dorothy Parker and Barry Day
- Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade
- A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick and Marion Meade
More Information
- Dorothy Parker Wikipedia
- The Dorothy Parker Society
- Dorothy Parker – Modern American Poetry
- Dorothy Parker – The Sexes
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Dorothy Parker Quotes
“A girl’s best friend is her mutter.”
“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”
“Creativity is a wild mind & a disciplined eye.”
“I’ve never been a millionaire but I just know I’d be darling at it.”
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” (on Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand)
“I hate writing, I love having written.”
“I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”
“The last time I was early for anything.” (On being born prematurely)
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
“Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.”
“Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.”
“I’m never going to accomplish anything; that’s perfectly clear to me. I’m never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don’t do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don’t even do that any more.”
“Four be the things I’d have been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles and doubt.”
“Money cannot buy health, but I’d settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair.”
“The two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘cheque enclosed.’”
“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
“If you wear a short enough skirt, the party will come to you.”
“Say my love is easy had,
Say I’m bitten raw with pride,
Say I am too often sad -
Still behold me at your side.
Say I’m neither brave nor young,
Say I woo and coddle care,
Say the devil touched my tongue -
Still you have my heart to wear.
But say my versus do not scan,
And I get me another man!
(“Fighting Words” from The Collected Poems of Dorothy Parker, 1959)
“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”
“Into love and out again,
Thus I went, and thus I go.
Spare your voice, and hold your pen-
Well and bitterly I know
All the songs were ever sung,
All the words were ever said;
Could it be, when I was young,
Someone dropped me on my head?”
(“Theory” from The Collected Poems of Dorothy Parker, 1959)
