Fran Lebowitz Quotes

Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.

One person's embarrassment is another person's accountability.

I try to stay in line and not be a jerk. I've always been conscious that if I really screw up, people might notice.

When I talk to young people about entering government, I tell them, “Now think of the worst thing you’ve ever done in your life. Don’t tell me what it is. Now think about having it on the 10 o’clock news.”

A lot of people want to talk about me and my hazing. Yes, I did. I make no apologies about it whatsoever.

Attention embarrasses me. I don't like to be on display.

Shame is like the weaver's thread; if it breaks in the net, it is wholly imperfect.

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

The only really safe thing to do is to write a diary of where you've been, what time you went to bed, what you ate. If I wrote honestly about everything I think it'd be a disaster. It would cause a lot of trouble.

It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.

I don't think any actors love taking their clothes off on film, unless you're an exhibitionist, which I'm certainly not.

I don't like talking about myself, if I'm honest.

When you've seen a nude infant doing a backward somersault you know why clothing exists.

It's amazing what we can get away with and what we can't. But it's not for me to decide.

There's no excuse, it's just an opportunity that presented in a limited way and that happened and as soon as the press rang me I didn't deny it I just said 'that's it' and I had to go home and explain it.

I'm from a time and place where bigheadedness was a really savage crime, and you'd get cut down for it by your peers and parents.

When someone watches us eating, we feel exposed. We might also harbor a suspicion that the person staring wants to steal food from our plate. The taboo, in any case, is long-standing.

I am sincerely mortified to be thus brought forward on the public stage against my love of silence … and my abhorrence of dispute.

Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of the Washington Post.

You ask me why I air your dirty laundry, but you do not ask yourself why you soil it to begin with.

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

Fame... it's been a challenge, let's put it that way. It's a privilege and a responsibility, and I'm not sure I carried the responsibility well at times, which is embarrassing. And I've had to look and be disappointed in myself occasionally for how I behaved in some circumstances.

I learned women never want to hear they have big feet. That's no fun.

I made bad decisions. That being said - the question is, does the public care about that?

I think that, given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isn't too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious.