November 17

"When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my head."

Queen Mary
(02/18/1516 – 11/17/1558)
English royalty (same dates as Audre Lourde) , during her final illness, referring to England's loss of Calais to France.

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache."

Catherine the Great
(05/02/1729 – 11/17/1796)
Russian leader

"Our own theological Church, as we know, has scorned and vilified the body till it has seemed almost a reproach and a shame to have one, yet at the same time has credited it with power to drag the soul to perdition."

Eliza Wood Burhans Farnham
(11/17/1815 – 12/15/1864)
US social reformer

"As God once said, and I think rightly..."

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery
(11/17/1887 – 03/24/1976)
English military

"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too."

Eugene Wigner
(11/17/1902 – 01/01/1995)
Hungarian-US physicist

"To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature."

Auguste Rodin
(11/12/1840 – 11/17/1917)
French sculptor (died near his birthday)

"Why don't you put that in the headline: 'He Only Did Three With Doris!' Set a lot of people straight."

Rock Hudson
(11/17/1925 – 10/02/1985)
US actor

"If you ever want to hear a boring conversation, why, pop down the mine. There it'll be!"

Peter Cook
(11/17/1937 – 01/09/1995)
English comic, actor (Beyond the Fringe)

"Science is analytical, descriptive, informative. Man does not live by bread alone, but by science he attempts to do so. Hence the deadliness of all that is purely scientific."

Eric Gill
(02/22/1882 – 11/17/1940)
English artist

"Anything with a ball, no good."

Martin Scorsese
(11/17/1942 – )
Italian-US director (was married to Isabella Rosellini) , on sports

"I bit a lot more bugs than bit me."

Lauren Hutton
(11/17/1943 – )
US model, actor , on eating termites with her pygmy friends in Africa

"I don’t tweet for a very simple reason, which is that I drink."

Lorne Michaels
(11/17/1944 – )
Canadian TV producer (SNL, Kids in the Hall)

"If you have to talk about fashion, then you are not in it." *

Michaele Vollbracht
(11/17/1947 – 06/07/2018)
US designer

"What is he—eleven? thirteen? I could play his nanny."

Sophie Marceau
(11/17/1966 – )
French actor , on Leonardo DiCaprio

"I hate being a blonde."

Leslie Bibb
(11/17/1974 – )
US actor

"I wanted to be a secretary, I love paper clips and staplers."

Rachel McAdams
(11/17/1978 – )
US actor

"A dead atheist is someone who's all dressed up with no place to go." *

James Duffecy
(10/03/1912 – 11/17/1983)
Australian evangelist of typically limited vision

"No one has a closest friend in Hollywood."

Sheilah Graham
(09/15/1904 – 11/17/1988)
English writer (LTR with F. Scott Fitzgerald)

"If I waited to be right before I spoke, I would be sending little cryptic messages on the Ouija board, complaints from the other side."

Audre Lourde
(02/18/1934 – 11/17/1992)
US writer (same dates as Queen Mary)

"A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement."

Abba Eban
(02/02/1915 – 11/17/2002)
S. Africa-born Israeli diplomat

"I consider myself a songwriter who sings rather than a singer who writes songs."

Don Gibson
(04/03/1928 – 11/17/2003)
US songwriter ("Oh Lonesome Me")

"But of course it's different now, the blues is no longer blues, it's green now."

Ruth Brown
(01/12/1928 – 11/17/2006)
US singer

"You're like a beautiful chandelier. I'd like to be around when you get lit up."

Irving Brecher
(01/17/1914 – 11/17/2008)
US screenwriter
("The Wicked Wit of the West: The last great Golden-Age screenwriter shares the hilarity and heartaches of working with Groucho, Garland, Gleason, Burns, Berle, Benny & many more")

"Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself."

Doris Lessing
(10/22/1919 – 11/17/2013)
Persia-born English writer