Truman Capote famously said of Jack Kerouac, author of On The Road, "That’s not writing.  That’s typing."    This is just one of the hundreds of  quotations of famous  "Needles, Skewers, Pricks and Outright Nastiness"  featured in Oh, What An Awful Thing To Say–A Book Of Notable Insults

Tennesse Williams said of Truman Capote "He is a sweetly vicious old lady."   William Faulkner called Mark Twain "…a hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe…" and Lord Byron is quoted writing all sorts of jealous nastiness about John Keats.

If your tastes run more to classic film insults, Bette Davis is quoted  "The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford is when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane."    And the frequently quoted Joan Rivers says of pop singer Boy George, "Just what England needs– another queer who can’t dress."

The collection of quotes is quite varied and the book is often laugh-out-loud funny.   I liked it so much that I am Recommending it even though no book cover image is available (the book cover features a portion of Paul Cadmus’ 1955 painting Bar Italia and I would love to have been able to include it) and the book is not available from Powell’s so I have provided a non-affiliate link to Amazon, where 21 copies are available.   And if you want to get it from the library, the  Worldcat page is linked from the 1959 photo of Truman Capote.