Dinner Guests Quotes

• At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Clever, Happy New Year

  Writer's Notebook (1949) p. 17 (written in 1896)

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• A dinner invitation, once accepted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes place, your executor must attend.

  Ward McAllister

  House Guests, Sacred, Accepted

  Ward McAllister (1890). “Society as I Have Found it”

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• I try to greet my friends with a drink in my hand, a warm smile on my face, and great music in the background, because that's what gets a dinner party off to a fun start.

  Ina Garten

  Smile, Fun, Party

  18 Copy quote

• I can get a better grasp of what is going on in the world from one good Washington dinner party than from all the background information NBC piles on my desk.

  Barbara Walters

  Party, Nbc, Office

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• When sociobiologists start shitting in their backyards with dinner guests in the vicinity, maybe their arguments about innateness over culture will start seeming more persuasive.

  Laura Kipnis

  Backyards, Culture, Argument

  Laura Kipnis (2009). “Against Love: A Polemic”, p.24, Vintage

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• Cold soup is a very tricky thing and it is a rare hostess who can carry it off. More often than not the dinner guest is left with the impression that had he only come a little earlier he could have gotten it while it was still hot.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Food, Hot, Soup

  Fran Lebowitz (2011). “The Fran Lebowitz Reader”, p.125, Vintage

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• I mean, I can cook, but I'd get very nervous having my food being judged by dinner guests.

  Prabal Gurung

  Mean, Nervous, Cooks

  "Prabal Gurung on His Love Affair with Women, SS13 Campaign, and Target Collection". Interview with Faran Krentcil, www.elle.com. January 31, 2013.

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• Paper should be edible, nutritious. Inks used for printing or writing should have delicious flavors. Magazines or newspapers read at breakfast should be eaten for lunch. Instead of throwing one's mail in the waste-basket, it should be saved for the dinner guests.

  John Cage

  Writing, Lunch, Should Have

  John Cage (2010). “M: Writings ’67–’72”, p.115, Wesleyan University Press

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• Careful as they may be, developers of Eiffel libraries will always run into cases in which, after releasing a library class, they suddenly experience what in French is called esprit de l'escalier or wit of the staircase: a great thought which unfortunately is an afterthought, like a clever reply that would have stunned all the other dinner guests - if only you had thought of it before walking down the stairs after the party is over.

  Bertrand Meyer

  Running, Clever, Party

  11 Copy quote

• Make sure your characters are worth spending ten hours with. That’s how long it takes to read a book. Reading a book is like being trapped in a room for ten hours with those characters. Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be loveable, or they can be evil, but they’d better be compelling. If not, your reader will be bored and leave.

  Po Bronson

  Book, Reading, Character

  "Advice on Writing". www.pobronson.com.

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• Even today, well-brought-up English girls are taught by their mothers to boil all veggies for at least a month and a half, just in case one of the dinner guests turns up without his teeth.

  Calvin Trillin

  Girl, Mother, Justice

  Calvin Trillin (1984). “Third Helpings”, Viking Press

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• My father once nearly came to blows with a female dinner guest about whether a particular patch of embroidery was fuchsia or magenta. But the infinite gradations of color in a fine sunset - from salmon to canary to midnight blue - left him wordless.

  Alison Bechdel

  Father, Sunset, Blow

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• The irrational may be attractive in the abstract, but not in cab drives, dinner guests, or elderly relatives.

  Mason Cooley

  Elderly, May, Reason

  6 Copy quote