Top 393 Quotes & Sayings by Fran Lebowitz

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American journalist Fran Lebowitz.
Last updated on December 24, 2024.
Fran Lebowitz

Frances Ann Lebowitz is an American author, public speaker, and occasional actor. She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association with many prominent figures of the 1970s and 1980s New York art scene, including Andy Warhol, Martin Scorsese, Jerome Robbins, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz and the New York Dolls. The New York Times has called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker. Lebowitz gained fame for her books Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981), which were combined into The Fran Lebowitz Reader in 1994. She has been the subject of two projects directed by Martin Scorsese, the HBO documentary film Public Speaking (2010), and the Netflix docu-series Pretend It's a City (2021).

If you are of the opinion that the contemplation of suicide is sufficient evidence of a poetic nature, do not forget that actions speak louder than words.
Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what he feels like doing, because I assure you that what he feels like doing, you won't feel like watching.
Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality, and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw.
If you're going to America, bring your own food. — © Fran Lebowitz
If you're going to America, bring your own food.
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them.
As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.
Radio news is bearable. This is due to the fact that while the news is being broadcast, the disk jockey is not allowed to talk.
My favorite animal is steak.
Designer clothes worn by children are like snowsuits worn by adults. Few can carry it off successfully.
Don't bother discussing sex with small children. They rarely have anything to add.
The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive.
Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try.
Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat. — © Fran Lebowitz
Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat.
Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
Success didn't spoil me, I've always been insufferable.
In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.
If you are truly serious abut preparing your child for the future, don't teach him to subtract teach him to deduct.
Scientists - the crowd that for dash and style make the general public look like the Bloomsbury set.
Polite conversation is rarely either.
Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications.
Nothing succeeds like address.
I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.
Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.
No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.
The telephone is a good way to talk to people without having to offer them a drink.
Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.
I never took hallucinogenic drugs because I never wanted my consciousness expanded one unnecessary iota.
Being a woman is of special interest only to aspiring male transsexuals. To actual women, it is simply a good excuse not to play football.
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
Contrary to popular opinion, the hustle is not a new dance step - it is an old business procedure.
Never relinquish clothing to a hotel valet without first specifically telling him that you want it back.
Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky.
When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.
Humility is no substitute for a good personality.
The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
I never met anyone who didn't have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?
All God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable. — © Fran Lebowitz
All God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable.
Andy Warhol made fame more famous.
Life is something to do when you can't get to sleep.
To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.
I must take issue with the term 'a mere child', for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.
I figure you have the same chance of winning the lottery whether you play or not.
If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater suggest that he wear a tail.
I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.
Calling a taxi in Texas is like calling a rabbi in Iraq.
You're only as good as your last haircut.
Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear the phone is for you. — © Fran Lebowitz
Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when you will be happy to hear the phone is for you.
There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Any attempt to prove otherwise constitutes unacceptable behavior.
Children are the most desirable opponents at scrabble as they are both easy to beat and fun to cheat.
Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.
Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying.
You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.
If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum.
Being offended is a natural consequence of leaving the house.
I always liked people who are older. Of course, every year it gets harder to find them.
Think before you speak. Read before you think.
Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine. You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion picture star. If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word "collectible" as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.
Randomness scares people. Religion is a way to explain randomness.
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