CLARE BOOTHE LUCE QUOTES
American author & ambassador (1903-1987)
I know all about violence and physical abuse because my first husband used to beat me severely when he got drunk. Once, I can remember coming home from a party and walking up our vast marble staircase at the Fifth Avenue house while he was striking me. I thought, If I just gave him one shove down the staircase I would be rid of him forever.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
"Fast and Luce", Vanity Fair, March 1988
Money can't buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you're being miserable.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, The Ultimate Book of Quotations
Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes"; They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes
Home is where you hang your architect.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
"Fast and Luce", Vanity Fair, March 1988
No good deed goes unpunished.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes
Know what Freud wrote in his diary when he was 77? "What do women want? My God, what do they want?" Fifty years this giant brain spends analyzing women. And he still can't find out what they want. So this makes him the world's greatest expert on female psychology?
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
Slam the Door Softly
Water cress. I'd just as soon eat my way across a front lawn.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women
They say that women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes
You know, I have had a terrible life. I married two men I really didn't like. My only daughter was killed in a car accident. My brother committed suicide. Has my life been a life for anyone to envy?
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
"Fast and Luce", Vanity Fair, March 1988
She's in love, bless her. After the child's been married as long as you girls, she may be able to concentrate on vital matters like bridge.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women
I can't avoid writing. It's a sort of nervous tic I have developed since I gave up needlepoint.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
"Fast and Luce", Vanity Fair, March 1988
If a woman's got any instincts, she feels when her husband's off the reservation.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women
A man has only one escape from his old self -- to see a different self in the mirror of some woman's eyes.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
Rich women are not too put upon by their children. You don't have to do all the things for a child that those women who had to stay at home did. My Ann had a French governess who took care of her until she was twelve years old and went off to boarding school.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
"Fast and Luce", Vanity Fair, March 1988
Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, Women Know Everything!
All autobiographies are alibi-ographies.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, Only in Books: Writers, Readers & Bibliophiles on Their Passion
I wish I were a virgin again. The only fun I ever had was holding out.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women
Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
attributed, Shameless Liar's Guide
There is nothing like a good dose of another woman to make a man appreciate his wife.
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE
The Women