Fran Lebowitz Quotes

In life, if you have an enthusiasm for what they call 'good manners,' sometimes people don't quite believe you. I've had that once or twice before, where they assume you can't be for real.

I love old-fashioned manners, as long as it's not forced. I can tell when it's natural or when someone is just trying to impress me.

It is better to be sincere in one language than to be a twit in two.

It's weird when people start sentences with 'frankly' - as if their other sentences don't count.

Politeness is sometimes a great tax upon sincerity.

The man who thrusts his manners upon me does as if he were to insist on introducing me to his cabinet of curiosities, when I wished to see himself.

It is a curious thing that when one speaks from the heart it is invariably in the worst of taste.

You seem to be going in for sincerity today. It isn't becoming to you, really — except as an obvious pose. Be as artificial as you are, I advise. There's a sort of sincerity in that, you know. And, after all, you must confess you like that better.

Emily Post says that talking about oneself isn't very polite.' 'I'm sure Miss Post is perfectly correct, but that doesn't seem to stop the rest of us.

How was your day? If your answer was "fine," then I don't think you were leading.

Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.

You can talk without saying a thing. I don't ever want to be that type of person.

Where in this small-talking world can I find A longitude with no platitude?

Stop saying no offense,” I said, “when you say offensive things. It’s not a free pass.

I don't like people who are hypocritical, who pretend to be nice, particularly in show business when they're nice on camera, and then off camera they're absolutely appalling to the makeup people, or the waitress in a restaurant, you know? I don't like - I can't bear those kind of people. So I like people who are, you know, up front in your face.

Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name.

I was raised to be charming, not sincere.

I don't want to lie. I dislike dishonesty. And I work in Hollywood, a town and a business that relies on a lot of falsehoods with people hiding behind different facades. I don't want to be a part of that.

One must be frank to be relevant.

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.

I'm just happy I'm not a phony.

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.

I abhor hypocrisy.

Most style is not honest enough.

It's so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.