# What's your favorite Dorothy Parker quote? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467 "2010-08-07T00:00:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/61 "2012-09-14T05:44:02Z")
Her review of the Christopher Isherwood play “I Am a Camera” - “No Leica.” ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/62 "2012-09-14T06:48:21Z")
> [@denquixote](#): > > Her review of the Christopher Isherwood play “I Am a Camera” - “No Leica.” Similarly, Walter Kerr reviewed John Van Druten’s 1951 play “I am a Camera” with “Me no Leica.” See for example [http://www.walterkerrtheatre.com/biography.php](http://www.walterkerrtheatre.com/biography.php). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/63 "2012-09-14T20:32:15Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > God, so many…can’t choose…how about the size of her office- one less inch, it would been adultry? It was actually “One square foot less would have constituted adultry.” ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/64 "2012-09-14T21:30:14Z")
> [@from\_a\_to\_z](#): > > Similarly, Walter Kerr reviewed John Van Druten’s 1951 play “I am a Camera” with “Me no Leica.” See for example [http://www.walterkerrtheatre.com/biography.php](http://www.walterkerrtheatre.com/biography.php). I will grant you that the majority of the citations seem to favor Kerr as the author of the review, though Parker is sometimes mentioned also, as well as Goodman Ace. You are correct in stating that Van Druten authored the play. Isherwood authored The Berlin Stories, one of which was the source of the title and main character, Sally Bowles. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/65 "2012-09-14T22:58:11Z")
> [@denquixote](#): > > …Isherwood authored The Berlin Stories, one of which was the source of the title and main character, Sally Bowles. Thank you **denquixote**. “I am a Camera” is from the second paragraph of Isherwood’s “A Berlin Diary (Autumn 1930)”: > [@](#): > > I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Sally Bowles is in “Sally Bowles” and “The Landauers” (and any others?), per the A new Directions Paperbook edition of _The Berlin Stories_. I can easily believe that more than person said “Me no Leica” before Kerr included it in his December 31, 1951, review in the _New York Herald Tribune_. From Dorothy’s “Summary”… > [@](#): > > Would I knew a little more / Or very much less! ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/66 "2012-09-14T23:46:39Z")
I love them all, but I guess my favorite is revealed under the duress of great frustration, when I can be heard to mutter under my breath “nooses give…” ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/67 "2012-09-15T13:14:49Z")
_The Portable Curmudgeon_ (compiled by Jon Winokur) quotes her telling her alcoholic husband, “You don’t want to be the town drunk Eddie. Not in Manhattan”. I’m from a small town, and I always found this a delightful twist on fabled New York supremacy. If it’s true that “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere”, then the town drunk would make Otis of Mayberry look temperate. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/68 "2012-09-15T23:56:36Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > _The Portable Curmudgeon_ (compiled by Jon Winokur) quotes her telling her alcoholic husband, “You don’t want to be the town drunk Eddie. Not in Manhattan”. > > I’m from a small town, and I always found this a delightful twist on fabled New York supremacy. If it’s true that “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere”, then the town drunk would make Otis of Mayberry look temperate. Another unsourced apocryphal quote which she almost certainly didn’t utter. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467/69 "2012-09-16T15:58:42Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > This one’s legit? I think I read it in one of William Safire’s _Language_ books: > > Life is naught but a beautiful song > A medley of extemporanea > Love is a thing that can never go wrong > and I’m Marie of Romania > > …I love it. So sarcastic. So dead on. It is legit, but the first line is actually “Oh life is a glorious cycle of song”, which I rather prefer. 🙂 _If I don’t drive around the park I’m pretty sure to make my mark If I’m in bed each night by ten I may get back my looks again If I abstain from fun and such I’ll probably amount to much But I shall stay the way I am Because I do not give a damn_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-dorothy-parker-quote/549467.md?page=3)