The world lost another accomplished, funny, and beloved person this week, when 60-year-old actress and writer Carrie Fisher passed away on Dec. 27, bathed in moonlight and strangled by her bra, following a massive heart attack suffered four days earlier. But, like everyone we've loved and lost in 2016, Carrie Fisher's best quotes from her books and movies will live on in our hearts. We loved her, and she knew.
Carrie Fisher was born on Oct. 21, 1956 in California to actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. In 1976, Fisher was cast as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' breakout hit, Star Wars, later subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope. She would go on to portray the iconic character in three Star Wars sequels, a truly terrible holiday special, and numerous video games.
But Fisher's scope extended beyond Star Wars and acting to include numerous books and screenplays. She authored three memoirs and three novels, and adapted two of her books — Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking — for the screen. Her final book, The Princess Diarist, contains the diaries she kept while on the first Star Wars set, and made headlines earlier this year for finally confirming her affair with Harrison Ford.
Here are 12 of the best Carrie Fisher quotes from her books. After reading them, please be sure to share your favorite memories of our one and only Leia Organa Solo on Twitter.
"I have to start by telling you that my entire existence could be summed up in one phrase. And that is: if my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable."
— From Wishful Drinking
"I liked being Princess Leia. Or Princess Leia's being me. Over time I thought that we'd melded into one. I don't think you could think of Leia without my lurking in that thought somewhere. And I'm not talking about masturbation. So Princess Leia are us."
— From The Princess Diarist
"You know what's funny about death? I mean other than absolutely nothing at all. You'd think we could remember finding out we weren't immortal. Sometimes I see children sobbing in airports, and I think, 'Aww. They've just been told.'"
— From Wishful Drinking
"I shot through my twenties like a luminous thread through a dark needle, blazing toward my destination: Nowhere."
— From Postcards from the Edge
"The crew [of 'Star Wars'] was mostly men. That's how it war and that's pretty much how it still is. It's a man's world and show business is a man's meal, with women generously sprinkled through it like an overqualified spice."
— From The Princess Diarist
"Life is a cruel, horrible joke and I am the punch line."
— From Postcards from the Edge
"One of the things that baffles me (and there are quite a few) is how there can be so much lingering stigma with regards to mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder. In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls. Not unlike a tour of Afghanistan (though the bombs and bullets, in this case, come from the inside). At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you're living with this illness and functioning at all, it's something to be proud of, not ashamed of. They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medication."
— From Wishful Drinking
"I am someone who wants very much to be popular. I don't just want you to like me, I want to be one of the most joy-inducing human beings that you've ever encountered. I want to explode on your night sky like fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve in Hong Kong."
— From The Princess Diarist
"There are two things that I know for certain guys are good for: pushing swings and killing insects."
— From Postcards from the Edge
"Oh! This'll impress you — I'm actually in the Abnormal Psychology textbook. Obviously my family is so proud. Keep in mind though, I'm a PEZ dispenser and I'm in the abnormal Psychology textbook. Who says you can't have it all?"
— From Wishful Drinking
"Thanks for the good times. Thank you for being so generous with what you have withheld. Thank you for being the snake in my grass, the thorn in my side, the pain in my ass, the knife in my back, the wrench in my works, the fly in my ointment. My Achilles' heart. Caught in a whirlpool without an anchor, relaxing into it, calmly going under for one of many last times."
— From The Princess Diarist
"Now, George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can't wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense you will be going to outer space very soon, so here's why you cannot wear your brassier, per George. So, what happened is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands? But your bra doesn't, so you get strangled by your own bra. I think that this would make for a fantastic obit, so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I wanted it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra."
— From Wishful Drinking
