Edna Ferber

America -- rather, the United States -- seems to me to be the Jew among the nations. It is resourceful, adaptable, maligned, envied, feared, imposed upon. It is warm-hearted, over-friendly; quick-witted, lavish, colorful; given to extravagant speech and gestures; its people are travelers and wanderers by nature, moving, shifting, restless; swarming in Fords, in ocean liners; craving entertainment; volatile. The chuckle among the nations of the world.

— Edna Ferber

Roast Beef, medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. Seated at Life's Dining Table, with the menu of Morals before you, your eye wanders a bit over the entr?es, the hors d'oeuvres, and the things ? la though you know that Roast Beef, medium, is safe and sane, and sure.

— Edna Ferber

Wasn't marriage, like life, unstimulating and unprofitable and somewhat empty when too well ordered and protected and guarded? Wasn't it finer, more splendid, more nourishing, when it was, like life itself, a mixture of the sordid and the magnificent; of mud and stars; of earth and flowers; of love and hate and laughter and tears and ugliness and beauty and hurt.

— Edna Ferber

A woman can look both moral and exciting -- if she also looks as if it was quite a struggle.

— Edna Ferber

I am not belittling the brave pioneer men but the sunbonnet as well as the sombrero has helped to settle this glorious land of ours.

— Edna Ferber

Life cannot defeat a writer who is in love with writing; for life itself is a writer's love until death.

— Edna Ferber

Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!

— Edna Ferber

Writers should be read but not seen. Rarely are they a winsome sight.

— Edna Ferber

Men often marry their mothers ….

— Edna Ferber

Don’t you believe ’em when they say that what you don’t know won’t hurt you. Biggest lie ever was. See it all and go your own way and nothing’ll hurt you. If what you see ain’t pretty, what’s the odds! See it anyway. Then next time you don’t have to look.

— Edna Ferber

“Woman’s work! Housework’s the hardest work in the world. That’s why men won’t do it.”

— Edna Ferber

From supper to bedtime is twice as long as from breakfast to supper.

— Edna Ferber

Most people don’t know how to have a good time, any more than spoiled children. I show them. I spend their money for them, and they’re grateful for it. I’ve got nothing to lose, because I live by my wits. They can’t take that away from me.

— Edna Ferber

If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in, there’s something wrong with American politics.

— Edna Ferber

You lose in the end unless you know how the wheel is fixed or can fix it yourself.

— Edna Ferber