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Who really said it

She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can't Say "No" in Any of Them

Not Alexander Woollcott — actually Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker 1893–1967 · American poet, critic and Algonquin Round Table wit
Disputed In copyright

The sentence really does sit in Alexander Woollcott’s prose — but inside quotation marks. In his profile Our Mrs. Parker, first printed in Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan in August 1933 and reprinted in While Rome Burns ↗ (Viking Press, first published March 1934) at page 149, Woollcott reports Parker murmuring it about a guest she has just seen off with enormous warmth. Woollcott is the recorder, not the wit — and even Parker’s claim rests on his single report, since Quote Investigator ↗ found a close variant already in print in 1931 under another byline.

Last verified 8 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can't Say "No" in Any of Them” Dorothy Parker, as quoted by Alexander Woollcott in "Our Mrs. Parker," While Rome Burns (New York: The Viking Press, 1934), p. 149; first printed in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan, August 1933. · Verbatim: “That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say No in any of them.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Alexander Woollcott. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Alexander Woollcott; While Rome Burns was published by The Viking Press, copyright 1934 by Alexander Woollcott). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Dorothy Parker — American poet, critic and short-story writer. Theme: "She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can't Say "No" in Any of Them". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can't Say "No" in Any of Them". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Woollcott’s “Our Mrs. Parker”

Work
While Rome Burns
Chapter
“Some Neighbors: IV: Our Mrs. Parker” — begins page 142; the line is on page 149
First printed
Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan, August 1933, page 90
Book edition
The Viking Press, New York — published March 1934, copyright 1934 by Alexander Woollcott

That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say No in any of them. While Rome Burns, p. 149

In Woollcott’s telling, Parker delivers this out of the corner of her mouth, moments after waving a departing guest off with effusive warmth — the whole point of the anecdote being the gap between the two performances. The sentence is Parker’s; the surrounding prose is Woollcott’s.

Scanned first-edition text
Read While Rome Burns at the Internet Archive
Quote Investigator: the 1931 and 1933 citations

How the line reached print

  • 8 September 1931 — a close variant runs in the Chicago Daily Tribune column “A Line O’ Type Or Two” by Richard Henry Little, about a former child prodigy who never learned to say “No” in any of her twelve languages. Not credited to Parker. Quote Investigator ↗
  • August 1933 — Alexander Woollcott’s profile “Our Mrs. Parker” appears in Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan. This is the first known ascription of the gibe to Dorothy Parker; Quote Investigator verified the citation from photocopies. Quote Investigator ↗
  • March 1934 — the same words are reprinted in Woollcott’s essay collection While Rome Burns (The Viking Press), on page 149. We confirmed the sentence in a full-text scan of the Viking text. Internet Archive ↗
  • 2003 — Gene Shalit’s Great Hollywood Wit prints a version naming Merle Oberon as the target, a detail absent from Woollcott. Quote Investigator ↗
In copyright

The remark itself was spoken, but the text that fixes it is Woollcott’s: first published in Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan in August 1933 and in While Rome Burns in March 1934, both after 1930, so we treat the passage as in copyright in the United States. The book’s copyright page reads “Copyright 1934 by Alexander Woollcott”; we have not checked whether that copyright was renewed, so a public-domain claim would be unsafe. The thirteen-word quotation is reproduced here as a short critical quotation with full attribution.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Who gets the credit, and why

This line is usually printed as Dorothy Parker’s, and that is right. Where it drifts to Alexander Woollcott, the cause is mechanical rather than mischievous: the sentence lives in his book, so indexes organised by book hand it to him.

Alexander Woollcott Recorder, not the wit

The sentence appears in Woollcott’s prose, but in quotation marks, as something Parker says about a departing guest. Wikiquote ↗ files it on Parker’s page under the heading for quotes taken from Woollcott’s essay, and his own Wikiquote page ↗ does not list it among his lines. Quote aggregators indexing by title still surface it on the While Rome Burns quotations page ↗, where it is credited to Parker but sits inside Woollcott’s book.

Richard Henry Little Earlier printed variant

Quote Investigator ↗ found a close variant in Little’s Chicago Daily Tribune column of 8 September 1931 — before any known ascription to Parker — about a prodigy who never learned to say “No” in any of her twelve languages and married whenever it was suggested. QI does not settle whether Little reworked a Parker quip or Parker’s version was a bawdier reworking of Little’s.

Merle Oberon Added decades later

Gene Shalit’s 2003 Great Hollywood Wit prints a version naming the actress, per Quote Investigator ↗. Woollcott names no one; QI calls the polyglot Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr. the solid candidate.

Parker said it, by Woollcott’s account, and his 1933 profile is the earliest known source for her version — but a close variant was already in print in 1931 ↗ under Richard Henry Little’s byline.

Context

Why this one is worth untangling

Woollcott’s profile is one of the great load-bearing documents of American quotation. English Wikiquote notes that “Our Mrs Parker” ↗ is the original published source for some of the best-known comments Parker made at the Algonquin Round Table — which means a handful of the most-repeated lines in the language reach us through one admiring friend’s memory of what was muttered across a lunch table.

That is why the credit slides. The words are printed over Woollcott’s byline, in Woollcott’s book, so quote lists that index by book rather than by speaker quietly hand him the joke. Read the actual page and the ownership is unambiguous: Parker says it, and Woollcott is the one repeating it with obvious relish.

The wit is Parker’s. The paper trail is Woollcott’s.

The 1931 version, the Merle Oberon version, and the Gershwin echo

1931, Chicago. Quote Investigator found the joke’s earliest documented form in the Chicago Daily Tribune column “A Line O’ Type Or Two” of 8 September 1931, written by Richard Henry Little. His target was the former child prodigy Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr. ↗, whose linguistic feats were much publicised and whose marriages were many; Little’s gag is about the altar, not the bedroom.

2003, Hollywood. Gene Shalit’s Great Hollywood Wit prints a version naming the actress Merle Oberon as the woman Parker was skewering. Quote Investigator records this as a late arrival and does not endorse it; no earlier source ties Oberon to the remark.

1942, Broadway. Wikiquote notes a family resemblance in Ira Gershwin’s lyric for “The Saga of Jenny” in Lady in the Dark: a line about a woman who could not say no in twenty-seven languages. A cousin of the joke, not a source for it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Knowledge

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: the full chronologyquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: the 1931 Richard Henry Little variant, the August 1933 Cosmopolitan first ascription to Parker, the 1934 book reprint, and the 2003 Merle Oberon version.
While Rome Burns (Viking Press) — full-text scanarchive.org

The primary artifact. Woollcott’s book, readable and searchable; the line sits on page 149 inside the essay “Some Neighbors: IV: Our Mrs. Parker.”
Dorothy Parker on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Files the line under a section for quotes drawn from Woollcott’s 1934 essay, and flags the later Ira Gershwin echo.
Alexander Woollcott on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Woollcott’s own quotations — the eighteen-languages line is not among them.
Alexander Woollcotten.wikipedia.org

Biography of the critic and New Yorker commentator (1887–1943) who recorded the remark, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table.
Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr.en.wikipedia.org

The multilingual child prodigy (1902–1983), much-married in adulthood, whom Quote Investigator names as the likely original target of the joke.

The wit behind the line

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker

1893–1967 · American poet, critic and short-story writer

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, literary critic and writer of fiction, later a screenwriter, and a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table — the New York lunch circle that also included Robert Benchley, Franklin P. Adams and Alexander Woollcott. She wrote theatre criticism for Vanity Fair and drama reviews and light verse for The New Yorker, and her reputation as a wisecracker — one she reportedly deplored — rests heavily on remarks that were spoken rather than published. That is precisely the problem with this quotation: the wit is hers by report, and the paper is Woollcott’s.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Alexander Woollcott, “Some Neighbors: IV: Our Mrs. Parker,” in While Rome Burns (New York: The Viking Press, 1934), 149; first printed as “Our Mrs. Parker,” Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan, August 1933, 90.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can't Say No in Any of Them’?” Last verified 8 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/she-speaks-eighteen-languages-and-cant-say-no-in-any-of-them/

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