Witty Nora

Nora Ephron (May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger. She is the daughter of screenwriting team, Pheobe and Henry Ephron. Nora grew up in a household where both parents abused alcohol, but she has never let her sometimes difficult childhood defeat her.

She is best known for her romantic comedies and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay): for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally..., and Sleepless in Seattle. She won a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally.... Her last film was Julie & Julia.

Nora Ephron died on June 26 2012 of pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukemia. She had planned the memorial herself, filing the plans in a folder marked “exit.” The program turned out to be poignant at times and uproarious at times, and there were frequent food references — to her roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, for example, and to the collection of at least 10 kinds of jam that she kept in the refrigerator. And, according to her son Max, her resistance to having Thanksgiving dinner early in the day. “We always had it at 7, like civilized people,” he said.

Meryl Streep, who starred in “Julie & Julia,” said that talking about Ms. Ephron was a difficult assignment. “How do you talk about a friend who said everything you wished you could say, everything you wanted to say in the world, but better and shorter and funnier?”

Nora Ephron Best 20 Quotes

1."I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."— Harry, When Harry Met Sally

2."Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic."— Sam, Sleepless in Seattle

3."Sometimes I believe that some people are better at love than others, and sometimes I believe that everyone is faking it."

4."Beware of men who cry. It's true that men who cry are sensitive to and in touch with feelings, but the only feelings they tend to be sensitive to and in touch with are their own."

5."The desire to get married is a basic and primal instinct in women. It's followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again."

6."Never marry a man you wouldn't want to be divorced from."

7."The divorce has lasted way longer than the marriage, but finally it's over. Enough about that.The point is that for a long time, the fact that I was divorced was the most important thing about me. And now it's not."

8."Oh, how I regret not having worn a bikini for the entire year I was twenty-six. If anyone young is reading this, go, right this minute, put on a bikini, and don't take it off until you're thirty-four."— I Feel Bad About My Neck

9."You can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream."— Heartburn

10."You can't retrieve you life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it).”― I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

11."Reading is one of the main things I do. Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter."—I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

12.To state the obvious, romantic comedies have to be funny and they have to be romantic. But one of the most important things, for me anyway, is that they be about two strong people finding their way to love."

13."I try to write parts for women that are as complicated and interesting as women actually are."

14.“Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.”

15."My mother was a good recreational cook, but what she basically believed about cooking was that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you."

16.“Every so often I would look at my women friends who were happily married and didn't cook, and I would always find myself wondering how they did it. Would anyone love me if I couldn't cook? I always thought cooking was part of the package: Step right up, it's Rachel Samstat, she's bright, she's funny and she can cook!”—Heartburn

17.“When your children are teenagers, it's important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”— I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a WOman

18.“…the amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.”― I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

19."When you have a baby, you set off an explosion in your marriage, and when the dust settles, your marriage is different from what it was. Not better, necessarily; not worse, necessarily; but different."

20."When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side."