'There's no room for demons when you're self-possessed': Carrie Fisher's gift for hilarious quips shows she was so much more than just Princess Leia

  • As well as acting, Fisher did stand-up comedy and wrote novels and memoirs
  • Her scathingly honest quick wit was on display both in her writing and on Twitter
  • These are some of her most hilarious and memorable lines 

Star wit: Carrie Fisher wrote several fiction and non-fiction books - including this year's The Princess Diarist - that showcased her ready wit and talent for humor

She might have made her name in Hollywood as Princess Leia, but Carrie Fisher was also known to her fans for her wry humor and lightning-fast wit.

In fact, she turned her wit into her trade, writing five novels - including 1987's semi-autobiographical Postcards from the Edge - and three autobiographical books, including 2008's Wishful Drinking and this year's The Princess Diarist. 

She even performed stand-up comedy sets while touring her books. 

Here are some of the spacefaring star's most brilliant - and scathing - lines. 

On Star Wars 

'Forty-three years ago George Lucas ruined my life. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008

(After being asked how she got the part) 'I slept with some nerd. I hope it was George... I took too many drugs to remember.' - in a Vanity Fair interview, 2006

'Movies were meant to stay on the screen, flat and large and colorful, gathering you up into their sweep of story, carrying you rollicking along to the end, then releasing you back into your unchanged life. But this movie misbehaved. It leaked out of the theater, poured off the screen, affected a lot of people so deeply that they required endless talismans and artifacts to stay connected to it.' - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

(On finding out that she might be returning to Star Wars on the big screen) 'I didn't like it when I was the age one could like it, but now they had 3-D and high-def and such, so that all your wrinkles and withered puffiness need their own agents...' - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

On fame

'Sometimes I feel like I've got my nose pressed up against the window of a bakery, only I'm the bread' - in Postcards from the Edge, 1987

'If you can get someone to make you into a PEZ dispenser, do it. And my daughter loves it because like I told you, she's a teenager, and they love to humiliate the parent for sport. So all she has to do is flip my head back and pull a wafer out of my neck.' -  in Wishful Drinking, 2008 

'I googled myself without lubricant. I don't I recommend it.' - on The Late Show With David Letterman, 2009 


On her struggles

'There's no room for demons when you're self-possessed.' - Twitter, 2014

'My inner world seems largely to consist of three rotating emotions: embarrassment, rage, and tension. Sometimes I feel excited, but I think that's just positive tension.' - in Postcards from the Edge, 1987

'Sometimes you can only find Heaven by slowly backing away from Hell.' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008  

 

On her bipolar disorder

'I feel I'm very sane about how crazy I am.' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008 

'I mean, hello - have you ever been invited to a mental hospital? So you see it's very exclusive. It's sort of like an invitation to the White House - only you meet a better class of person there.' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008

'Having waited my entire life to get an award for something, anything … I now get awards all the time for being mentally ill. It’s better than being bad at being insane, right? How tragic would it be to be runner-up for Bipolar Woman of the Year?' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008 

 

Sharp shooter: Fisher first played Princess Leia when she was just 21. She turned her later experiences with fame, drugs and mental illness into fuel for her witty writings

On romance 

'I think if I attract someone from one of my audiences or one of the readers of this book, he'll never be able to say, "You never told me you were a manic-depressive drug addict who turned men bald and gay," like men say to me now.' - in Wishful Drinking, 2008

'Sex=weird, no? 14hrs after you had ur face pressed in2 sum 1's genitals, ur both walking down the street as tho that was fine, thanx, howR u?' - Twitter, 2014 

Someone has to stand still for you to love them. My choices are always on the run. - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

'Pure lust is an oxymoron' - Twitter, 2016  

 

On her affair with Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford 

'With his silence he establishes himself as some sort of trapped audience and so you break your a** to meet the enormous challenge of entertaining him, frantic with worry that his teeth might suffocate.' - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

'Oh, he's very funny sometimes, with his parched sense of humor. But he only plays himself part time.' - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

'I can charm the birds out of everybody else's trees but his. Vultures are difficult to charm unless you’re off somewhere rotting in the noonday sun. Casually rotting… a glib cadaver.' - in The Princess Diarist, 2016

 

On living life

'I’m not only doing my best - I’m doing a bunch of yours as well.' - Twitter, 2014 

'I've stopped trying to take things a day at a time. I now take 2 or 3 days at once---hoping it'll cause a blur effect & I might look younger' - Twitter, 2015  

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