"He had delusions of adequacy" (Walter Kerr).
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" (Winston Churchill).
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure" (Clarence Darrow).
William Faulkner said of Ernest Hemingway: "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book," wrote Moses Hadas. "I'll waste no time reading it."
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it" (Mark Twain).
Oscar Wilde: "He has no enemies, but he is intensely disliked by his friends."
George Bernard Shaw to Sir Winston Churchill: "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend . . . if you have one."
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second . . . if there is one," wrote Winston Churchill in response.
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here" (Stephen Bishop).
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator" (John Bright).
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial" (Irvin S. Cobb).
Samuel Johnson: "He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others."
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up" (Paul Keating).
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him" (Forrest Tucker).
Mark Twain: "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
Mae West: "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go" (Oscar Wilde).
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts . . . for support rather than illumination" (Andrew Lang).
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music" (Billy Wilder).
Groucho Marx: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
