Fran Lebowitz

Lebowitz was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey. She has one sister, Ellen. Her parents were Ruth and Harold{{cite web |title=Harold Lebowitz Obituary - Morristown, New Jersey , Rowe Funeral Home |url=https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/3111369/Harold-Lebowitz |website=Tribute Archive |access-date=January 10, 2021 |date=November 21, 2008 |quote=Lebowitz owned and operated Pearl's Upholstered Furniture}} Lebowitz, who owned Pearl's Upholstered Furniture, a furniture store and upholstery workshop.{{cite news |title=At Lunch With: Fran Lebowitz; Words Are Easy, Books Are Not |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30810FC3C540C738DDDA10894DC494D81 |newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 10, 1994|last=Morris|first=Bob}}{{cite news |title=Fran Lebowitz on Why Childhood Was a Good Fit |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/fran-lebowitz-on-why-childhood-was-a-good-fit-1427815698 |access-date=January 10, 2021 |work=Wall Street Journal |date=March 31, 2015}} She developed a love of reading from an early age, to the point that she would surreptitiously read during class and neglect her homework. Lebowitz describes her "Jewish identity [as] ethnic or cultural or whatever people call it now. But it's not religious." She has been an atheist since age 7.{{cite video | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXPLuzRq6-Y&t=18s | title=Fran Lebowitz Interview on Charlie Rose |author=KXM |via=YouTube.com | date=February 15, 2017 |access-date=July 17, 2017}} She did not have a bat mitzvah, but did go to Sunday school until 15 and had a confirmation.

Lebowitz was a poor student overall, particularly in algebra, which she failed six times. She has called it "the first thing which they presented to me that I absolutely could not understand at all, and had no interest in understanding".{{cite video |title=Fran Lebowitz interview |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6AWAYg49K4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/N6AWAYg49K4 |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|author=Eleanor Wachtel |work=Writers & Company |publisher=CBC Radio |via=YouTube.com |date=2012-11-25 |access-date=May 8, 2018}}{{cbignore}} She worked at a Carvel ice cream store. Her grades were so poor that her parents enrolled her in The Wilson School{{cite news |last=Ginsberg |first=Johanna R. |title=The NJ that's in me doesn't exist anymore |url=https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/the-nj-thats-in-me-doesnt-exist-anymore/ |access-date=January 10, 2021 |work=New Jersey Jewish News |date=January 27, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180302152316/http://njjewishnews.com/article/29683/the-nj-thats-in-me-doesnt-exist-anymore |archive-date=March 2, 2018 |quote=There was no official charge. When people ask me about this, they usually think, what do you have to do to get expelled from school? Now, you have to burn the school down or something. I just wasn't the headmaster's cup of tea...So I went to Sunday school until I was 15. And then had a confirmation.}} (now defunct and whose facilities have been purchased by The Craig School), a private girls' Episcopal school, in Mountain Lakes, where her grades marginally improved but she had difficulty following the rules and was eventually expelled for "nonspecific surliness".{{cite news |last=Osgood |first=Kelsey |title=Biographies We Need: The Delightful Drollery of Fran Lebowitz |url=http://www.signature-reads.com/2014/03/biographies-we-need-the-delightful-drollery-of-fran-lebowitz/ |publisher=signature-reads.com |date=March 25, 2014 |access-date=May 8, 2018}} She also was suspended from Morristown High School for sneaking out of pep rallies.{{cite news |last1=La Gorce |first1=Tammy |title=Riding Out the Pandemic with Fran Lebowitz |url=https://njmonthly.com/articles/arts-entertainment/fran-lebowitz/ |access-date=January 10, 2021 |work=New Jersey Monthly |date=November 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109210206/https://njmonthly.com/articles/arts-entertainment/fran-lebowitz/ |archive-date=November 9, 2020 |quote=I was suspended from Morristown High School specifically for sneaking out of pep rallies...So is algebra, which I failed six times.}}

As an adolescent, Lebowitz was deeply affected by James Baldwin: "James Baldwin was the first person I ever saw on television who I heard talk like that—by which I mean, he was the first intellectual I ever heard talk... And I was just flabbergasted. That made me read him."{{cite web |url=https://www.insidehook.com/article/books/fran-lebowitz-really-think |title=What Does Fran Lebowitz Really Think About Trump and #MeToo? |website=InsideHook |language=en-US |access-date=April 17, 2020}} She also enjoyed watching television appearances by Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, though she did not agree with Buckley.

After being expelled from high school, Lebowitz earned her certificate of high school equivalency. When she was 18, her parents sent her to live with her aunt in Poughkeepsie, New York. She stayed for six months,{{cite news |last=Mitgang |first=Herbert |title=BEHIND THE BEST SELLERS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/06/04/archives/behind-the-best-sellers-fran-lebowitz.html |access-date=January 11, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=June 4, 1978 |quote=expelled in her senior year — "Kicked out," she says. "I wasn't the right type for Wilson School. I couldn't wear their blazer. I never discovered the formal charge — that went to my parents. I think was thrown out for petulance."}} and then in 1969 moved to New York City.{{cite web |title=Fran Lebowitz Remembers Everything in Public Speaking |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/02/23/fran-lebowitz-remembers-everything-in-public-speaking/ |access-date=April 17, 2020 |website=The Village Voice|date=February 23, 2011 }} Her father agreed to pay for her first two months in the city on the condition that she live at the women's-only Martha Washington Hotel. She then stayed with friends in New York apartments and Boston college dormitories, surviving by writing papers for students. At age 20, she rented a West Village apartment.{{cite journal |last1=Clemente |first1=Francesco |author1-link=Francesco Clemente |title=The Voice: Fran Lebowitz |journal=Interview Magazine |date=11 March 2016 |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz |access-date=16 January 2021 |quote=But when I say no kitchen, I mean no sink. Okay? There was a sink in the bathroom. But I moved into that apartment in 1970 or '69; there was no ceiling in the bathroom. I saw the super once, just when I moved in, and I pointed out to him there was no ceiling in the bathroom. He said they'd fix it. When I moved out nine years later, there was no ceiling in the bathroom. There may, in fact, still be no ceiling in the bathroom.}}{{cite news |last1=Bui |first1=Phong |title=FRAN LEBOWITZ with Phong Bui |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2014/03/art/fran-lebowitz |access-date=January 11, 2021 |work=The Brooklyn Rail |date=March 4, 2014 |quote=I remember when I moved out of the hotel I basically lived on the floors of my friends' apartments. I would even go to Boston and sleep on the floor in the dormitory of a few friends from high school who were going to college in Boston. I didn't really have my own apartment probably until I was 20.}} To support herself, she worked as a cleaner, chauffeur, taxi driver and pornography writer. Lebowitz refused to wait tables because she claimed that sexual intercourse with the manager was a prerequisite for hiring at many restaurants{{Cite web|last=Tashjian|first=Rachel|date=March 21, 2019|title=Fran Lebowitz Will Never Read This Interview|url=https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/fran-lebowitz-interview-donald-trump-feminism-metoo.html|access-date=April 18, 2020|website=The Cut|language=en-US|quote="Fran is very close with Toni Morrison. "She's one of my best friends, and she is the only wise person I've ever known. I know lots of very smart people, but I only know one wise person," she said. She and Toni talk on the phone every day. "She's very important to me because there are very few people's advice I'm interested in," Fran said. "I've not always taken Toni's advice, but I'm always interested. Toni is so unlike me. When I was young, my mother used to say, ‘Can't you be the bigger person?' And I would say no. I am by nature the smaller person, but the bigger person is Toni.""}} and that she "can't smile at people for money".{{cite web |last1=Clemente |first1=Francisco |title=The Voice: Fran Lebowitz |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz |website=Interview Magazine |date=March 11, 2016}}

At age 21, Lebowitz worked for Changes, a small magazine "about radical-chic politics and culture"{{cite book|last1=Santoro|first1=Gene|title=Myself when I am real : the life and music of Charles Mingus|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-514711-1|location=New York|page=283}} founded by Susan Graham Ungaro,{{cite web|date=April 24, 1984|title=Lebowitz v. Mingus, 100 A.D.2d 816|url=https://casetext.com/case/lebowitz-v-mingus|access-date=January 10, 2021|website=Casetext}} the fourth wife of Charles Mingus. She sold advertising space, and then wrote book and movie reviews.{{cite journal |last1=O'Brien |first1=Glenn |title=Fran Lebowitz, America's Funniest Femme Fatale |journal=High Times |date=October 28, 2019 |issue=August 1978 |url=https://hightimes.com/culture/fran-lebowitz/ |access-date=January 11, 2021 |quote=Just one day the headmaster woke up and thought. "She's really not our type."}} Andy Warhol then hired Lebowitz as a columnist for Interview magazine,{{cite web|work=The Daily Californian|title=Fran Lebowitz goes road-tripping|first=Thomas|last=Coughlan|date=November 7, 2012|url=http://www.dailycal.org/2012/11/07/fran-lebowitz-goes-road-tripping/}} where she wrote two columns: "The Best of the Worst", which reviewed bad movies, and "I Cover the Waterfront". Then came a stint at Mademoiselle.{{cite web|work=The Huffington Post|first=Elysabeth|last=Alfano|title=Quintessential New Yorker and Social Commentator, Fran Lebowitz, Comes to Chicago|date=September 28, 2012|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/elysabeth-alfano/fran-lebowitz-harris-theater_b_1916499.html}} During these years, she made friends with many artists, including photographers Peter Hujar, whom she met in 1971, and Robert Mapplethorpe, who often gave her photos, many of which she threw away in the 1970s.{{cite web|url=https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/10966/fran-lebowitz-remembers-her-friend-peter-hujar|title=Fran Lebowitz Remembers Her Friend Peter Hujar|last=AnOther|date=June 28, 2018|website=AnOtherc|access-date=April 18, 2020}}

In 1978, her first book, Metropolitan Life, was published. The book was a collection of comedic essays mostly from Mademoiselle and Interview, with titles such as "Success Without College" and "A Few Words on a Few Words". She often detailed things that she found irksome or frustrating in a dry, sardonic tone.{{cite web|url=https://www.kwbu.org/post/likely-stories-metropolitan-life-fran-lebowitz|title=Likely Stories: Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz|last=McKeown|first=Jim |website=www.kwbu.org |date=July 27, 2017 |access-date=April 18, 2020}} After its publication, Lebowitz became a local celebrity, frequenting Studio 54{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/10/18/fran-lebowitz-frank-rich/|title=It Starts With a Drag: The Friendship of Frances A. Lebowitz and Frank Rich '71 |website=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=April 18, 2020}} and regularly appearing on television talk shows. This was followed by Social Studies (1981), another collection of comedic essays mostly from Mademoiselle and Interview,{{cite news |last1=Collins |first1=Glenn |title=The Sour Cream Sensibility |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/books/the-sour-cream-sensibility.html |access-date=January 11, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=August 23, 1981}} in which she explored topics such as teenagers, films, and room service.{{Cite web|url=https://static.nbclearn.com/files/nbcarchives/site/pdf/34946.pdf|title=NBC Learn: Fran Lebowitz, Social Studies}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Years later, The Fran Lebowitz Reader (1994) was published, which included both books.{{cite web|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/02/fran-lebowitz-in-public-speaking/|title=Fran Lebowitz in Public Speaking|last=Callahan|first=Dan|date=February 21, 2011|work=Slant Magazine}}

Since the mid-1990s, Lebowitz has been known for her decades-long writer's block. Her last published book was Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas (1994), a children's book about giant pandas living in New York City who long to move to Paris. Since that time, Lebowitz has worked on various book projects that have not been completed. This includes Exterior Signs of Wealth, a long-overdue, unfinished novel, purportedly about rich people who want to be artists and artists who want to be rich. Another book, Progress, was excerpted in Vanity Fair in 2004,{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2004/10/lebowitz_excerpt200410|title=Is Everything Sacred?|last=Lebowitz|first=Fran|date=October 2004|work=Vanity Fair}} but has yet to be completed. When discussing her writer's block, she said: "My editor—who, whenever I introduce him as my editor, always says, 'easiest job in town'—he says that the paralysis I have about writing is caused by an excessive reverence for the written word, and I think that's probably true."

File:Harold Augenbraum, Wallace Shawn, Deborah Eisenberg, Fran Lebowitz (6160560453).jpg, Wallace Shawn and Deborah Eisenberg during a panel discussion at the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival. Since the 1980s, Lebowitz has largely supported herself with speaking engagements.]]

Due to her writer's block, Lebowitz has largely supported herself with television appearances and speaking engagements. She has said, "It's what I wanted my entire life. People asking me my opinion, and people not allowed to interrupt."{{cite web|url=http://www.thelmagazine.com/2011/02/public-speaking-a-mash-note-from-one-fast-talker-to-another/|title=Public Speaking: A Mash Note from One Fast-Talker to Another|date=February 16, 2011|website=The L Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=April 18, 2020|archive-date=April 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410092652/https://www.thelmagazine.com/2011/02/public-speaking-a-mash-note-from-one-fast-talker-to-another/|url-status=dead}} She tours as a public speaker, represented by the Steven Barclay Agency.{{cite web|url=http://www.barclayagency.com/?/site/speaker/fran-lebowitz|title=Fran Lebowitz: Author, Journalist, Social Observer|publisher=Steven Barclay Agency}} In addition, she has made several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and had a recurring role as Judge Janice Goldberg on the television drama Law & Order from 2001 to 2007. She does still write journalistic pieces; Lebowitz has been employed as a contributing editor and occasional columnist for Vanity Fair since 1997.

Through her public appearances, Lebowitz has reached a wider audience who have come to know her trademark style. She is known for her clever quips and observational humor on a range of topics, including New York City, gentrification, art, literature, and politics. She typically wears men's suit jackets (made bespoke by the Savile Row firm of Anderson & Sheppard),{{cite news |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Fran |title='I think an Anderson & Sheppard suit is the best suit there is': Fran Lebowitz on her favourite tailor |url=https://www.ft.com/content/17b39323-0188-481f-881c-b16e6f528cd8 |access-date=January 10, 2021 |work=Financial Times |date=November 25, 2020}} white shirts, cowboy boots, Levi's jeans, and tortoiseshell glasses.{{cite web|url=http://www.elle.com/fashion/personal-style/interviews/a27447/fran-lebowitz-style-interview/|title='Yoga Pants are Ruining Women' and Other Style Advice From Fran Lebowitz|date=March 2014|work=Elle|access-date=May 12, 2016}}{{cite news|author=Nicole Brodeur|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/life/lifestyle/sex-tapes-politics-cigarettes-a-conversation-with-fran-lebowitz/|title=Sex tapes, politics, cigarettes: A Conversation with Fran Lebowitz|date=February 15, 2018|access-date=May 9, 2018|publisher=Seattle Times}} She often speaks of her treasured pearl-grey 1979 Checker cab, the only car she has ever owned, which she describes as "the only monogamous relationship I've ever had in my life".{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7CBdiQPvY8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/W7CBdiQPvY8 |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=fran lebowitz interview npr|date=April 30, 2015|author=NPR|publisher=YouTube.com|access-date=May 8, 2018}}{{cbignore}} In September 2007, Lebowitz was named one of the year's most stylish women in Vanity Fair's 68th [http://International%20Best%20Dressed%20Hall%20of%20Fame%20List Annual International Best-Dressed List].{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/09/bestdressed200709|title=The 68th Annual International Best-Dressed List|date=September 2007|work=Vanity Fair}} An annual event, FranCon, celebrates Lebowitz's sartorial sense, with participants dressing in her signature style.{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Hannah |date=2024-10-26 |title=Fran Lebowitz—and Her Fashion—Take Center Stage at FranCon |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/fran-lebowitz-fall-fashion-francon |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Guerrero |first=Melissa |date=2023-10-27 |title=‘Franning It Up’ at New York’s Most No-Nonsense Party |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/style/fran-lebowitz-francon.html |access-date=2025-03-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Lebowitz is also known for her massive book collection, 10,000 volumes in all, including at least one shelf of soap-carving books,{{Cite news |date=2017-03-21 |title=Fran Lebowitz: By the Book |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/books/review/fran-lebowitz-by-the-book.html |access-date=2025-01-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and her refusal to use many technologies, including cellphones and computers.{{cite news|last=Eckardt|first=Stephanie |url=https://www.wmagazine.com/story/fran-lebowitz-doesnt-have-a-cell-phone-but-knows-everything-that-happens-on-social-media-anyway |title=Fran Lebowitz Doesn't Have a Cell Phone, But Knows Everything That Happens on Social Media Anyway|work=W Magazine|access-date=October 29, 2017}} A heavy smoker, Lebowitz is an advocate for smokers' rights.{{cite web|title=VF editor gives up smoke fight|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/access/795366101.html?dids=795366101:795366101&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+19%2C+2005&author=&pub=New+York+Post&desc=VF+EDITOR+GIVES+UP+SMOKE+FIGHT&pqatl=google|work=New York Post|date=February 19, 2005|access-date=July 6, 2017|archive-date=November 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104154545/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/access/795366101.html?dids=795366101:795366101&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+19,+2005&author=&pub=New+York+Post&desc=VF+EDITOR+GIVES+UP+SMOKE+FIGHT&pqatl=google|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://smokingsides.com/asfs/L/Lebowitz.html|title=Female Celebrity Smoking List – Lebowitz|work=Smokingsides.com|access-date=July 26, 2012|archive-date=July 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714212521/http://smokingsides.com/asfs/L/Lebowitz.html|url-status=usurped}} She has not otherwise used drugs or alcohol since she was 19, which she says is because she reached her "lifetime supply" of both by that age.{{cite news| url=http://www.papermag.com/fran-lebowitz-to-tourists-stay-home-1427410316.html| title=Fran Lebowitz to Tourists: "Stay Home"| author=David Hershkovits| publisher=Paper Magazine| date=September 17, 2014| access-date=May 9, 2018}}

In 2010, Lebowitz was introduced to a new generation of audiences, when she was featured in the Public Speaking, an HBO documentary about her directed by Martin Scorsese that contains interviews and clips from her speaking engagements.{{cite web|url=http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/public-speaking/|work=HBO|title=Public Speaking|year=2010|access-date=November 19, 2010|archive-date=September 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921174707/http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/public-speaking|url-status=dead}} On November 17, 2010, she returned to the Late Show with David Letterman after a 16-year absence to promote the documentary. She discussed her years-long writer's block, which she jokingly called a "writer's blockade". Lebowitz also made an appearance as a judge in Scorsese's 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street. She collaborated with Scorsese again on the 2021 Netflix series Pretend It's a City, in which Scorsese interviews her about New York City and other subjects.{{cite video| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkc71hM9vT0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/Hkc71hM9vT0 |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live| title=Fran Lebowitz Tries to Not Talk About Her Netflix Series with Martin Scorsese| author=The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon| publisher=YouTube.com| date=July 16, 2019| access-date=July 19, 2019}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|url=https://www.curbed.com/article/fran-lebowitz-pretend-its-a-city.html|title= Fran Lebowitz vs. the World Talking (on a landline) with the star of Martin Scorsese's cranky, necessary love letter to New York, Pretend It's a City|website= Curb|date= December 29, 2020|access-date= December 30, 2020}}

Lebowitz has been critical of the gentrification and changing culture of New York City. She explained that the main difference between "Old New York" and "New New York" is the influence and dominance of the culture of money. While New York was always an expensive city, people who were not rich could live in Manhattan and "you didn't have to think about money every second." This was because, among other reasons, "there were a zillion bad jobs. That doesn't exist any more. I mean, I could wake up one afternoon with zero money—I don't just mean in the house, I mean to my name—and know that by the end of the day, I would have money."{{cite web|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz|title=The Voice: Fran Lebowitz|date=March 11, 2016|website=Interview Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=April 17, 2020}}

She has been critical of New York mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg for making New York more "suburban" and accelerating gentrification in Manhattan. She has also been critical of the large numbers of wealthy people in New York City, as she believes they do not create anything of value but only consume things.{{cite web|url=https://www.amny.com/news/museum-hours-memories-chaos-quiet-70s-manhattan/|title=Museum Hours: Memories of Chaos and Quiet in '70s Manhattan|last=amNY|date=October 6, 2016|website=amNewYork|language=en-US|access-date=April 18, 2020}} Of Bloomberg, she said:

{{blockquote|I object to people who are rich in politics. I don't think they should be allowed to be in politics. It is bad that rich people are in politics, it is bad for everybody but rich people, and rich people don't need any more help. Whenever people say, "Oh, he earned his money himself," I always say the same thing: "No one earns a billion dollars. People earn $10 an hour, people steal a billion dollars."}}

Of Giuliani's law enforcement policies she said, "When Giuliani was the mayor, every five minutes an unarmed black man was shot in the back."{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0crvi_Q2fiY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/0crvi_Q2fiY |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Real Time with Bill Maher: Fran Lebowitz – Giuliani and Racism|date=February 20, 2015|author=HBO|publisher=YouTube.com|access-date=May 9, 2018}}{{cbignore}} Lebowitz abhors New York City's high number of tourists, calling the shift in the 1980s toward promoting the city as a tourist destination "an incredibly horrible idea". She has cited tourism as a cause of New York's housing shortage because hotels are built rather than apartment buildings, and described the negative effects of gearing the city's economy towards tourists: "You cannot lure these herds of hillbillies into the middle of a city, and not have it affect the city."{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwrUBDxrGHI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930060047/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwrUBDxrGHI&gl=US&hl=en&has_verified=1 |archive-date=2011-09-30 |url-status=dead|title=Fran Lebowitz on New York & Andy Warhol|date=August 4, 2011|author=HBO Films|publisher=YouTube.com|access-date=May 11, 2018}}

Of the homelessness crisis in New York, she has said, "Any New Yorker who walks down the street in this rich city ... you can't even hear anything because the money's making so much noise now, and see people in the street and not feel this is a disgrace to the country, it's a disgrace to the city."{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4WTZ0jCsWE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/N4WTZ0jCsWE |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Fran Lebowitz Knows What to Do With All Those Empty Oligarch Apartments|date=December 2, 2015|author=Vanity Fair|publisher=YouTube.com|access-date=May 9, 2018}}{{cbignore}}

In the 1980s and 1990s, many of Lebowitz's gay male artist friends, including Peter Hujar, Paul Thek and David Wojnarowicz, died of HIV/AIDS. She has discussed the impact that the epidemic in New York had on American culture. In particular, she has spoken about the cultural void that was left behind from losing a generation of talented artists and intellectuals. Many of these men not only produced art and intellectual culture, but were also the passionate audiences that nurtured such culture. As she explained in a 2016 interview:

What is culture without gay people? This is America, what is the culture? Not just New York. AIDS completely changed American culture... And with AIDS, a whole generation of gay men died practically all at once, within a couple of years. And especially the ones that I knew. The first people who died of AIDS were artists. They were also the most interesting people... The knowing audience also died and no longer exists in a real way... There's a huge gap in what people know, and there's no context for it anymore.

File:Fran Lebowitz Shankbone 2010 NYC (4542366736).jpg]]

Lebowitz has been called the "opposite of lean-in feminism". She said in a 2019 interview:

If [feminism] really worked, there wouldn't be feminism anymore. There's a couple of things that have changed so much for the better, and the life of a girl is a billion times better than when I was a girl. There's no comparison. It's so much better, and yet it's still horrible. That will tell you what it was like, okay?

In another interview, she said, "I didn't pay much attention to it, largely because it never occurred to me it would work. I was, unfortunately, largely right." She has also said, "The way girls are raised now. It's so different... When I was a child, if you wanted to do something and you were not allowed to do it, very often, the answer to why not would be: because you're a girl."{{cite web|url=https://frieze.com/article/women-arts-fran-lebowitz|title=Women in the Arts: Fran Lebowitz|last=Durbin|first=Andrew|website=Frieze |date=April 9, 2018 |access-date=2020-04-18}}

Of the MeToo movement, she said,

It never occurred to me this would ever change. Being a woman was exactly the same from Eve till eight months ago. So it never occurred to me that it would change. Ever. I can tell you that it's probably one of the most surprising things in my life. The first forty guys who got caught—I knew almost all of them.

Lebowitz identifies as a liberal Democrat{{cite video| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBqyHmDatuA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/oBqyHmDatuA |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live| title=Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime – February 26, 2016 (HBO)| author=Real Time with Bill Maher| publisher=YouTube.com| date=February 26, 2016| access-date=May 16, 2018}}{{cbignore}} and is often critical of moderate Democratic politicians and policy. She has been a vociferous critic of the Republican Party for many years and more recently of President Donald Trump.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/mar/20/fran-lebowitz-you-do-not-know-anyone-as-stupid-as-donald-trump| title=Fran Lebowitz: 'You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump'| author=Brigid Delaney| work=The Guardian | date=March 19, 2018| access-date=May 9, 2018}} She has said that Trump's appeal to his voters is "racism, pure and simple," and described Trump campaign rallies as reminiscent of those held by the Ku Klux Klan and George Wallace.{{cite news| url=http://worldofwonder.net/fran-leibowitz-donald-trump-hes-poor-persons-idea-rich-person/| title=Fran Leibowitz on Donald Trump: "He's a Poor Person's Idea of a Rich Person". Watch| author=Trey Speegle| publisher=worldofwonder.net| date=October 27, 2016| access-date=May 9, 2018}} She has called Trump "a cheap hustler," "stupid," "lazy," and "a little crazy, but mostly he's dumb."{{cite video| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAtlBhClnPw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/sAtlBhClnPw |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live| title=Grabbing Back: Women in the Age of Trump – all about women 2018| author=Sydney Opera House Talks & Ideas| publisher=YouTube.com| date=March 13, 2018| access-date=May 9, 2018}}{{cbignore}} Of Trump's election in 2016, she said, "It was horrible. I felt that strongly affected emotionally for at least a month. My level of rage, always high, is now in fever pitch all the time." She joked, "If there's one upside to all this [Trump's election], it's that it's gotten Trump out of New York."{{cite news| url=http://www.papermag.com/fran-lebowitz-donald-trump-presidency-2089972907.html| title=Fran Lebowitz Has Spoken| author=Fran Lebowitz| publisher=Paper Magazine| date=November 11, 2016| access-date=May 10, 2018| archive-date=April 14, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414015038/https://www.papermag.com/fran-lebowitz-donald-trump-presidency-2089972907.html| url-status=dead}}

Lebowitz has been critical of many other politicians. She has expressed antipathy for Bill Clinton for moving the Democratic Party to the right, saying, "to me he seemed like a Republican...when he signed that welfare bill I went insane. He was a successful moderate Republican president." Lebowitz has spoken of her dislike for Bernie Sanders, calling him at one point "an unbelievably irritating, narcissistic old man" who took votes away from her candidate of choice, Hillary Clinton. She often describes Ronald Reagan as "the template for the stupid President," saying that "before Reagan there was no idea the president could be stupid."

Lebowitz has said she believes the Second Amendment has been misinterpreted, and guarantees individuals the right not to bear arms but rather to form militias. Of the gun rights debate, she has said:

{{blockquote|Who are these people that love guns? These people who love Trump and they love guns, these are the most frightened people I have ever seen in my life ... I could have gotten a gun but I never got one. I was an 18-year-old penniless girl in the middle of a dangerous city and I was never as afraid as these men in Texas, living in a state of terror.}}

In May 2019, Lebowitz jokingly suggested on Real Time with Bill Maher that Trump should suffer the same fate as Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post columnist who the CIA and multiple other intelligence agencies believe was tortured and assassinated by Saudi operatives on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's orders.{{cite news| url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/social-media-lights-up-after-author-suggests-trump-should-be-turned-over-to-the-saudis-like-murdered-journalist| title=Maher guest Fran Lebowitz's Trump comments light up social media with reactions| author=Brie Stimson| publisher=Fox News | date=May 18, 2018| access-date=May 18, 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2019/05/fran-lebowitz-bill-maher-donald-trump-saudis-jamal-khashoggi-video-1202618033/|title=Fran Lebowitz Apologizes After Telling Bill Maher U.S. Should Give Donald Trump To Saudis Who Killed Khashoggi|last1=de Moraes|first1=Lisa |date=May 18, 2019|website=Deadline |access-date=April 17, 2020}} She walked back her comments later in the program.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fran-lebowitz-trump-saudis-837135/|title=Fran Lebowitz Kinda Apologizes for Saying Saudis Should 'Get Rid of' Trump Like Khashoggi|author=Peter Wade|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=May 18, 2018|access-date=June 3, 2018|quote=I did not mean that and I regret saying it.}}

Lebowitz is open about her personal life and is a lesbian.Adams, Sam N., and Megan B. Prasad (October 18, 2012), [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/10/18/fran-lebowitz-frank-rich/ "It Starts With a Drag: The Friendship of Frances A. Lebowitz and Frank Rich '71"], The Harvard Crimson. She has spoken about having difficulty with romantic relationships. In 2016, she said, "I'm the world's greatest daughter. I'm a great relative. I believe I'm a great friend. I'm a horrible girlfriend. I always was."

Lebowitz was a close, longtime friend of Toni Morrison.

She is "famously resistant to technology", having no cellphone, computer, or typewriter.{{cite magazine |last1=Schulman |first1=Michael |title=Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/fran-lebowitz-is-never-leaving-new-york |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=June 26, 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Clemente |first1=Francisco |title=The Voice: Fran Lebowitz |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz |website=Interview Magazine |access-date=October 20, 2020 |date=March 11, 2016}}

Lebowitz is blind in her right eye, a condition she was born with.{{cite web |last1=Shales |first1=Tom |author-link=Tom Shales |title=The Crotchety Humorist Is Becoming A Fad Fran Lebowitz: A Terminal Case of Antic Urban Angst |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1978/06/05/the-crotchety-humorist-is-becoming-a-fad-fran-lebowitz-a-terminal-case-of-antic-urban-angst/162fd994-fd30-46ff-8a39-ab1fcd4218d5/ |website=The Washington Post |date=5 June 1978}}

Film

Television

• Metropolitan Life, Dutton, 1978. {{ISBN|978-0-525-15562-1}}
• Social Studies, Random House, 1981. {{ISBN|978-0-394-51245-7}}
• The Fran Lebowitz Reader, Vintage Books, 1994, {{ISBN|978-0-679-76180-8}}
• Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas, Knopf, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0-679-86052-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Fran |last2=Warhol |first2=Andy |author1-link=Fran Lebowitz |author2-link=Andy Warhol |editor1-last=Brant |editor1-first=Sandra J. |editor2-last=Sischy |editor2-first=Ingrid |title=Andy Warhol's Interview: The Crystal Ball of Pop Culture. Volume 7: Fran Lebowitz: I Cover the Waterfront. |date=2004 |publisher=Edition 7L |location=Paris |url=https://www.luiscius.com/ARTISTS/22750/Warhol-Andy-Brant-Sandra-J-Ingrid-Sischy-eds-Andy-Warhol-s-Interview-Fran-Lebowitz-I-Cover-the-.html |oclc=314795464 |isbn=3865210236|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116213043/https://www.luiscius.com/ARTISTS/22750/Warhol-Andy-Brant-Sandra-J-Ingrid-Sischy-eds-Andy-Warhol-s-Interview-Fran-Lebowitz-I-Cover-the-.html |archive-date=January 16, 2021 }}{{cite news |last1=Dooley |first1=Michael |title=Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine Finally Shuts Up |url=https://www.printmag.com/post/andy-warhols-interview-magazine |access-date=16 January 2021 |work=PRINT |date=1 June 2018 |language=en |quote=Back in 2005 I'd reviewed a seven-volume set of books, titled, Andy Warhol's Interview: The Crystal Ball of Pop Culture. |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122191156/https://www.printmag.com/post/andy-warhols-interview-magazine |url-status=dead }}
• Exterior Signs of Wealth (unfinished and unpublished){{cite news |last1=Morris |first1=Bob |title=AT LUNCH WITH: Fran Lebowitz; Words Are Easy, Books Are Not (Published 1994) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/10/garden/at-lunch-with-fran-lebowitz-words-are-easy-books-are-not.html |access-date=16 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=10 August 1994 |quote=It's only in the last two years that Ms. Lebowitz has broken through an 11-year writer's block that kept her from collecting much of the large advance she received from Random House to write a novel called "Exterior Signs of Wealth," which she describes simply as "unfinished."}}{{cite web |last1=Beller |first1=Thomas |title=Interview with Fran Lebowitz |url=https://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2002/10/interview-with-fran-lebowitz |website=Mr. Beller's Neighborhood |access-date=16 January 2021 |language=en |date=2002-10-11}}
• Progress (unfinished and unpublished), New York : Knopf, 2003, {{OCLC|52860152}} {{ISBN|9781400041367}}{{cite journal |last1=McCulloch |first1=Sara Black |title=An Interview with Fran Lebowitz |journal=Believer Magazine |date=1 October 2018 |url=https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-fran-lebowitz/ |quote=Since 1981, she has been writing her famously unfinished novel, Exterior Signs of Wealth. Ever the ironist, for nearly fifteen years Lebowitz has also been working on Progress, a critique of American life and culture.}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Fran Lebowitz}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb name}}
• [https://franlebowitz.com/ Fran Lebowitz official site]
• [http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/fran_lebowitz.shtml Fran Lebowitz interview] Index magazine
• [http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=670 Fran Lebowitz interview] mrbellersneighborhood.com
• [http://bbook.com/nightlife/fran-lebowitz-on-scorsese-mayor-bloomberg-kim-kardashian/ Fran Lebowitz interview] Black Book
• [https://www.avclub.com/fran-lebowitz-1798226122 Fran Lebowitz interview] The Onion A.V. Club
• [http://mantlethought.org/content/pen-2013-masterclass-fran-lebowitz PEN 2013 Master/Class] with Fran Lebowitz and A. M. Homes
• {{cite web |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Fran |last2=Homes |first2=A.M. |author2-link=A.M. Homes |title=Master/Class |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBYzgFPLeGY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/jBYzgFPLeGY |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|website=PEN America |date=May 13, 2013 |via=YouTube }}{{cbignore}}
• {{cite web |title=Fran Lebowitz on QTV |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSj0qSLzerI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508165844/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSj0qSLzerI&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2013-05-08 |url-status=dead|website=q on cbc |publisher=CBC Radio |date=April 13, 2011 |via=YouTube |quote=}}
• {{cite web |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Fran |last2=Mansion |first2=Gracie |title=LOEWE Conversations |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xW0jbXqFsA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/5xW0jbXqFsA |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|website=LOEWE |via=YouTube |date=July 4, 2018}}{{cbignore}}
• {{cite web |last1=Amanpour |first1=Christiane |author1-link=Christiane Amanpour |title=Fran Lebowitz |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i4kuQynyQI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/7i4kuQynyQI |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|website=Amanpour and Company |publisher=CNN |via=YouTube |date=February 14, 2020 }}{{cbignore}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebowitz, Fran}}

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