| Leo Rosten |
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| 1908 births | |
| 1997 deaths | |
| jewish writers | |
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He is also well-known for his encyclopedic volume '' The Joys Of Yiddish '' (1968), a guide to the Yiddish language and to Jewish culture (as well as a source for Anecdote s and Jewish Humor ). It was followed by "O Kaplan! My Kaplan!" 1976, and ''Hooray for Yiddish!'' (1982) , a humorous lexicon of the American language as influenced by Jewish culture. Among his other works is a large volume titled ''Leo Rosten's Treasury of Jewish Quotations''. Among his own many quotations are: "A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead," "Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad," "Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense," "We see things as we are, not as they are," and "I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all." Rosten was a successful screenwriter. He wrote the story for '''' (1943) (as Leonard Q. Ross), '' They Got Me Covered '' (1943) (story) (as Leonard Q. Ross), '' All Through The Night " (1942) (story) (as Leonard Q. Ross), '' The Conspirators '' (1944) (screenplay), The Velvet Touch '' (1948), '' Sleep, My Love '' (1948) (novel) (screenplay), '' Double Dynamite '' (1951) (story), '' Walk East On Beacon '' (1952), and '' Mister Cory '' (1957) (story). At a tribute dinner to fellow humorist W. C. Fields , a youngish and reportedly nervous Rosten came up with the unscripted remark about Fields that "anyone who hates babies and dogs can't be all bad!" This statement is often misattributed to Fields himself. PUBLICATIONS
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