“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”

A compact Shakespearean parody displaying the wordplay that made her reputation · Fashion caption, Vogue

• Art
• Joy

“Salary is no object; I want only enough to keep body and soul apart.”

Reversing a familiar phrase to joke about the precarious economics of writing · Book review, The New Yorker, 1928

• Art
• Joy

“I know of no character in the literature of the last quarter-century who is such a complete pain in the neck.”

Applying literary criticism with gleeful directness to Emily Post's idealised social figure · Book review of Emily Post's Etiquette, The New Yorker, 1927

• Art
• Truth

“The most a lady may do is give him the wrong telephone number.”

Mocking rigid social etiquette by suggesting a more practical form of self-defence · Book review of Emily Post's Etiquette, The New Yorker, 1927

• Joy
• Truth

“Her present style has also the simple straightness of a pretzel. A caressing pain in the neck is what her work gives me.”

Condensing literary criticism into a vivid joke about unnecessarily tortuous prose · Book review, The New Yorker, 1928

• Art
• Truth

“It was a toss-up, as I staggered toward the conclusion, as to whether it would be him or me.”

Describing an exhausting novel through exaggerated competition with its dying character · Book review, The New Yorker, 1928

• Art
• Death

“Souls get lost so easily. I used to be forever leaving mine in taxicabs.”

Turning fashionable talk of spirituality into an image of comic absent-mindedness · Book review, The New Yorker, 1928

• Faith
• Joy

“I think things are going to get better.”

A notably simple expression of optimism from a writer famous for pessimistic wit · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Hope
• Time

“No. No. And it was a curse on me, it was simply awful the things that were attributed to me.”

Rejecting the many invented wisecracks that accumulated around her reputation · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Fame
• Truth

“New talents have got to come along because they always have.”

Expressing faith in the continual renewal of creative talent · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Hope
• Time

“I think if I didn't have hope I'd just as soon be dead.”

Expressing hope as something essential rather than merely comforting · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Death
• Hope

“You got to take that chance and then get some other job.”

Arguing that artists must risk professional consequences rather than surrender conviction · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Hope
• Truth

“You can't put down literally everything that everybody says; you'll be bored stiff, as I am with him.”

Arguing that realistic dialogue still requires selection, judgement and craft · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Truth

“It's murder to work for them, at least so I think, because everybody writes. There are too many people writing. Everybody in the studio writes.”

Complaining about the loss of individual authorship in the Hollywood studio system · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art

“Would you mind if I leave the room when you speak that word?”

Her joking response when Terkel introduced the subject of Hollywood · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Joy

“I think it's very healthy to crave laughter, don't you?”

Seeing the desire for comedy as a sign of emotional health rather than frivolity · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Hope
• Joy

“I feel there always has been and always will be.”

Affirming the permanent need for satire in society · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Truth

“I think he's great. I think lastingly great.”

Offering an unequivocal judgement on the enduring achievement of Ring Lardner · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Fame

“I think it does teach you a great deal about words and about the rhythm that must be in prose too.”

Explaining how writing verse sharpened her sense of language and prose rhythm · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Poetry

“I'm not a poet, you know. I just write verse.”

Displaying the severe modesty with which she habitually judged her own poetry · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Poetry

“I can't call myself a critic. Honestly I can only put down what I think and pray there's no libel suit, that's all.”

Deflating the dignity of literary criticism while defending personal judgement · Interview with Studs Terkel, 1959

• Art
• Truth

“Civilization is coming to an end, you understand.”

Mocking extravagance and absurdity in the fashionable world she once wrote for · Interview, The Paris Review, 1956

• Art
• Time

“He and I had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery.”

Turning a memory of cramped working conditions into a characteristic piece of wordplay · Interview, The Paris Review, 1956

• Art
• Joy
• Memory

“It was the greatest act of friendship I'd known.”

Remembering Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood resigning after she was dismissed from Vanity Fair · Interview, The Paris Review, 1956

• Friendship
• Memory