Famous Last Words: Writers' Words Before They Died

A writer's life revolves around always knowing what to say and how to say it. But in the face of death, you'd think fear, pain and pressure would trump eloquence when speaking their last words. However, in the true form of their craft, (most of) these writers combine both honesty and eloquence to produce some of the greatest (and weirdest!) last words spoken. Here's a list of our favorite last words!

Know of any writers whose last words really stand out? Let us know in the comments!

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Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859)

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Before suffering a fatal stroke in 1859, author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" and "Rip Van Winkle" Washington Irving was preparing his bed for the night when he turned to his niece and said, "I have to set my pillows one more night; when will this end already?"

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Before suffering a fatal stroke in 1859, author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" and "Rip Van Winkle" Washington Irving was preparing his bed for the night when he turned to his niece and said, "I have to set my pillows one more night; when will this end already?"

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These Last Words

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Comments

[Mitch Johnesee]

08:55 PM on 08/31/2011

Greatest not on the list: Thoreau, "Moose, Indian"

I don't know what it means, and it might not mean anything, but there's something about the old mystic and his connection to life that has always made me ponder these parting thoughts.

[eljefejeff]

07:51 AM on 08/28/2011

love Eugene O Neill's: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room, and God damn it, died in a hotel room."

[Rosa Sophia]

11:38 PM on 08/27/2011

The last words that writer Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian) wrote before killing himself were: "All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire."

[ajajm]

09:48 AM on 08/24/2011

a famous mafia boss was shot and killed coming out of a laundromat and his final words were "I forgot my bleach"

[Tom Friedman]

01:54 PM on 08/23/2011

A former VP of the US, Alben Barkley, was speaking at the 1956 Mock Convention at Washington and Lee University when he said" I'd rather serve in the house of the Lord than rule in the house of the devil."
At that point he fell to the stage dead. It counts as written since he was reading the speach when he died. I know, I was 15 feet from him.

[LisaMarieNyc]

06:06 AM on 08/19/2011

These last words were in the form of a suicide note; its matter-of-fact tone startled me along with his "desire to" or his "inability to resist" closing with one final piece of his trademark sardonic wit. Wouldn't say it's my favorite, yet many years later his last words are still indelibly imprinted in my memory.

"Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good Luck." - George Sanders

[Brittany G Bassett]

03:04 AM on 08/19/2011

Haha I love Oscar Wilde. His last words truly fit his persona!

[cuoi]

11:18 AM on 08/17/2011

You pilots out there probably know this: "The most frequent last words I have heard on cockpit voice-recorder tapes are, 'Oh Shit,' said with about that much emotion. There's no panic, no scream, it's a sort of resignation: we've done everything we can, I can't think of anything else to do and this is it.

— Frank McDermott, partner in McDermott Associates, specialists in cockpit voice recorders."
From: http://www.skygod.com/quotes/lastwords.html

[kerriberri]

12:51 AM on 08/16/2011

Can't help myself; Wilde's my favorite (roughly: either that wallpaper's got to go, or I do).

[EricArthurBlair]

01:01 PM on 08/15/2011

I think that if you could have time travel and a camcorder, you'd find that most, if not all, of these quotes are apocryphal.

[manntxs]

09:16 AM on 08/15/2011

Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!

Who: Groucho Marx

[WYHKTai-Tai]

06:18 AM on 08/15/2011

roflmao! I LOVE the Oscar Wilde quote! ((As usual))

[SuperDaveOsborn]

04:45 PM on 08/14/2011

WOW ! Quite PROFOUND, these "last words" of some of the famous writers, but Mark Twain's is my favorite:

A note found by Twain's deathbed read, "Death, the only immortal, who treats us alike, whose peace and refuge are for all. The soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved."

[Kai Ferano]

05:48 AM on 08/14/2011

What a wonder article! Right up to the end, these literary giants were erudite. I remember reading some years ago that the most common utterance right before death is calling for one's mother.

[bonnieb333]

09:14 PM on 08/15/2011

Kai, your comment gave me the chills. That is exactly what my mother cried at some point during in the last few days of her life. Do you recall where you may have read that?

[Kai Ferano]

06:06 AM on 08/16/2011

bonnieb333, No, I don't. I read it about 20 years ago. It might have been an article in one of those popular newstand magazines. A dying person may very well see his or her deceased mother by the bedside, to make the transistion easier. (I hesitate to mention this, because it might open up a Pandora's box on this website, but I know from one dying person, that deceased loved ones to "hang around" their bedside. Makes sense to me!)

[ajajm]

09:51 AM on 08/24/2011

seconds before she died after being in a coma for days, my mother in law sat up and said "I see my mama" then she laid down and died. Her mother had been dead for years.

[Kai Ferano]

09:09 PM on 08/24/2011

ajajm, I truly believe that your grandmother came to your mother to help her make the transistion "from here to there." I may as well tell you, without going into too much detail, that two years ago I woke up during the night and felt a terrible "presence" in my room. I sensed evil. I called out to my mother to help me. (She had been deceased for 11 years.) After I called out for her help, I saw her standing, in the dark, at the foot of my bed. I looked in her direction for about 30 seconds, the room had become "benign",, and I fell back to sleep.

[chibikawaiistarr]

04:23 AM on 08/14/2011

Interesting article.