Liz Smith

God knows, it had never been my ambition to be a gossip columnist. I mean, I was never particularly intrigued by show business celebrities. ... I really want most of them to leave me alone, so I can go talk to writers, which is what I really enjoy. Writers are madmen -- they're all secretly in the closet, jerking off their egos -- but there's something rewarding and vulnerable about them. [Esquire, August 1979] Show less «

My father won some money in a horse race and managed to send me to journalism school at the University of Texas. Show less «

Reporters are amazingly hypocritical. They have all taken drugs and cocaine and have been unfaithful to their spouses. People judge one another by standards they would never apply to themselves. Show less «