Upon my honor
I saw a Madonna
Standing in a niche
Over the door
Of the glamorous whore
Of a prominent son of a bitch.

Another quote →

Source, in full

Said to have been written in the guest-book of Hearst Castle, referring to the room occupied by Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies. Parker always denied it, pointing out that she would never have rhymed "honor" with "Madonna".

Notes from Wikiquote

Since Parker didn't write it, there are many different versions of this, including ones where the word describing the whore is "favorite" or "famous", and ones where "son of a bitch" is modified by "the world's worst" instead of "a prominent".

More quotes by Dorothy Parker

All Dorothy Parker quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dorothy Parker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.