Frases de Fran Lebowitz

„Pregúntale a tu hijo qué quiere para cenar solo si está comprando.“

—  Fran Lebowitz

„I never met anyone who didn't have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?“

—  Fran Lebowitz

"Words Are Easy, Books Are Not," interview with Bob Morris, The New York Times (1994-08-10), Late Edition, Section C, page 1, column 1.

„Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"Parental Guidance".
Social Studies (1981)

„Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you something to think about that you didn't make up yourself - a wise move at any age, but most especially at seventeen, when you are in the greatest danger of coming to annoying conclusions.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"Tips for Teens".
Social Studies (1981)

„Children do not really need money. After all, they don't have to pay rent or send mailgrams.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"Parental Guidance".
Social Studies (1981)

„Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Metropolitan Life

"Letters" (p. 143).
Metropolitan Life (1978)

„The terrible state of public education has paid huge dividends in ignorance. Huge. We now have a country that can be told blatant lies — easily checkable, blatant lies — and I’m not talking about the covert workings of the CIA. When we have a terrorist attack, on September 11, 2001 with 19 men — 15 of them are Saudis — and five minutes later the whole country thinks they’re from Iraq — how can you have faith in the public? This is an easily checkable fact. The whole country is like the O. J. Simpson jurors.“

—  Fran Lebowitz

Ruminator Magazine interview with Susannah McNeely (August/September 2005).

„Bread that must be sliced with an ax is bread that is too nourishing.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Metropolitan Life

"Food for Thought and Vice Versa" (p. 109).
Metropolitan Life (1978)

„Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to unreasonable expectations and eventual disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around the room with royal-blue chickens.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"Parental Guidance".
Social Studies (1981)

„Radio news is bearable. This is due to the fact that while the news is being broadcast the disc jockey is not allowed to talk.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Metropolitan Life

"No News is Preferable" ( p. 221 http://books.google.com/books?id=wKnCCIk9O0wC&q=%22Radio+news+is+bearable+This+is+due+to+the+fact+that+while+the+news+is+being+broadcast+the+disc+jockey+is+not+allowed+to+talk%22&pg=PA221#v=onepage)
Originally published in "The Lebowitz Report" http://books.google.com/books?id=k_MxAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Radio+news+is+bearable+This+is+due+to+the+fact+that+while+the+news+is+being+broadcast+the+disc+jockey+is+not+allowed+to+talk%22&pg=PA209#v=onepage column in Mademoiselle (1975)
Metropolitan Life (1978)

„Take away a man’s actual sense of manhood — which is conventionally based on the ability to work, to earn money, to be self-sufficient, to provide for children — and you’ve got to give them something else. And they did.This hideous religion that’s all over the country — these huge church-malls — that’s what substitutes for these lost towns. But that’s not a town. That’s a cult. A town is diverse, in a real way, not in this fake way we have now. A community is a butcher and a doctor, a minister, a town troublemaker. A "community" is not a bunch of people united by some grievance. That’s just self-righteousness — incredibly dangerous and antidemocratic. People have become so rigid; their opinions seem to them like themselves. When that happens (and it has happened) people can’t change their minds. If you are identified by your opinions — if that is the very basis of yourself — how can you change your mind?“

—  Fran Lebowitz

Ruminator Magazine interview with Susannah McNeely (August/September 2005).

„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, libro Social Studies

"Tips for Teens".
Social Studies (1981)

„Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"People".
Social Studies (1981)

„If your sexual fantasies were truly of interest to others, they would no longer be fantasies.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Metropolitan Life

"Letters" (p. 143).
Metropolitan Life (1978)

„I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use. Pleasant because one is in the best possible company and safe because sleep is the consummate protection against the unseemliness that is the invariable consequence of being awake. What you don't know won't hurt you. Sleep is death without the responsibility.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Metropolitan Life

"Why I Love Sleep" (p. 91).
Metropolitan Life (1978)

„The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"People".
Social Studies (1981)

„I don't believe in anything you have to believe in.“

—  Fran Lebowitz

Reported by Steve Pinker, " I am Steve Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard. Ask me anything. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1a67x4/i_am_steve_pinker_a_cognitive_psychologist_at/c8uiccn", Reddit.com (March 12, 2013).
Other

„There's no such thing as advice to the lovelorn. If they took advice, they wouldn't be lovelorn. You see, advice and lovelorn don't go together. Because advice makes love sound like some sort of cognitive activity, but we know that it isn't. We all know that it's some sort of horrible chemical reaction over which we have absolutely no control. And that's why advice doesn't work.“

—  Fran Lebowitz

Index Magazine interview http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/fran_lebowitz.shtml with David Savage (1997).

„Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.“

—  Fran Lebowitz, libro Social Studies

"Tips for Teens".
Social Studies (1981)