September 15

"Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example."

Duc Francois de la Rochefoucald
(09/15/1613 – 03/17/1680)
French writer ("Maxims")

William Howard Taft: "I have been talking for a quarter of an hour, but there is so much noise that I can hardly hear myself talk."
Crowd member: "That's all right, you're not missing anything."
(09/15/1857 – 03/08/1930)
US President (27), Supreme Court justice

Friend: "That drink is slow poison."
Robert Benchley: "So who's in a hurry?"
(09/15/1889 – 11/21/1945)
US writer ("How to Sleep")

"I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness—to save oneself trouble."

Agatha Christie
(09/15/1890 – 01/12/1976)
English writer ("And Then There Were None")

"Goodbye, Mr. Zanuck; it certainly has been a pleasure working at Sixteenth Century Fox."

Jean Renoir
(09/15/1894 – 02/12/1979)
French filmmaker ("La Grande Illusion")
(son of Pierre Auguste)

"Don't be a blueprint. Be an original."

Roy Acuff
(09/15/1903 – 11/23/1992)
US singer ("The Wabash Cannonball")

"That youthful sparkle in his eyes is caused by his contact lenses, which he keeps highly polished."

Sheilah Graham
(09/15/1904 – 11/17/1988)
English writer ("Beloved Infidel") , on Ronald Reagan
(LTR with F. Scott Fitzgerald)

"I would stand on the floor, and they would bring this arm down and cinch it around my waist, then pull me up in the air. Every time I moved, one of the fingers would loosen, so it would look like I was trying to get away. Actually, I was trying not to slip through his hand."

Fay Wray
(09/15/1907 – 08/08/2004)
US actor ("The Most Dangerous Game") , on acting in 'King Kong'

"I'm proud and grateful I was Blondie, She was dumb and shrewish sometimes, but she was real and sympathetic and warm, a real woman, a human being. And that's how I tried to play her."

Penny Singleton
(09/15/1908 – 11/12/2003)
US actor
("Blondie" films)

"You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree."

John Mitchell
(09/15/1913 – 11/09/1988)
US Secretary of State
(was married to Martha Mitchell)

"We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we're in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past."

Thomas Wolfe
(10/03/1900 – 09/15/1938)
US writer ("Look Homeward, Angel")

"My thanks to the Academy for the very finest, greatest award that any actor can ever receive. The only thing a man can say at a time like this is—I am not really bald."

Tommy Lee Jones
(09/15/1946 – )
US actor ("Men in Black")

"They say I'm unsubtle. But we need above all, a theatre that wakes us up: nerves and heart."

Oliver Stone
(09/15/1946 – )
US director ("Natural Born Killers")

"You've got to take chances in life." *

Nelson Minter
(09/15/1957 – 12/03/1993)
US friend and schoolmate
(his son is named Chance)

"When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed."

Bill Evans
(08/16/1929 – 09/15/1980)
US pianist ("Waltz For Debby")

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."

Beverley Nichols
(09/09/1898 – 09/15/1983)
English writer ("Evensong")
(died near his birthday)

"I think the greatest curse of American society has been the idea of an easy millennialism—that some new drug, or the next election, or the latest in social engineering will solve everything."

Robert Penn Warren
(04/24/1905 – 09/15/1989)
US writer ("All the King's Men")

"As soon as you start analyzing something it stops."

Johnny Ramone
(10/08/1948 – 09/15/2004)
US guitarist (Ramones) ("I Wanna Be Sedated")

"Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient?"

Oriana Fallaci
(06/29/1929 – 09/15/2006)
Italian journalist ("Interview with History")

"Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it."

Ric Ocasek
(03/23/1944 – 09/15/2019)
US singer, songwriter (Cars) ("Shake It Up")
(was married to Paulina Porizkova)