Katharine Hepburn
47 quotes
Biography
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a leading lady on stage and screen spanned six decades. Known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, she cultivated a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly played strong-willed, sophisticated women.
"I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky."
"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change."
"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."
"Now how can anybody look at that and not believe in God? I mean, how can anybody look at this and not believe there is some higher power, some divine force at work in the universe greater than Man, some god that created it, that created all this, that created us?"
"My beautiful Grandmother -- Caroline Garlinghouse -- came from Pittsburgh -- my mother's mother. I never met her but I have followed many of her ideas -- through my mother -- And it has given me a warm spot in my heart for your city...My grandmother's brother, Fred Garlinghouse, lived in Pittsburgh, was an engineer and apparently worked for Jones and Laughlin Steel Company."
"I survived those three weeks with hardly a decent meal or anyone to help. I kept a brown paper bag in the wastebasket next to my bed. I ate all my meals in my bedroom during this time, so I could pitch the inedible food into it and not be rude to the cooks. This problem, though it had overtones of comedy, was not good for my health. All my film career I had envied Katharine Hepburn's high cheekbones and narrow face. Now I had them."
"Katie Hepburn went to the meetings. She was a good friend of 's. I had a little car, a little broken down Ford Roadster with a rumble seat. I used to go around and collect people Saturday night and we'd go up to Eunice's house. She lived in a brownstone house of her parents on 65th Street. We would go up to the third floor, which was her bedroom with a lovely fire glowing, and lie on the floor and talk about the theatre. I remember one night Katie Hepburn said: ‘Well, I'm not going to join the organization. I've decided against it.' ‘Why, Katie, how can you even think that way?' She said, ‘I don't know. I just feel that I have to do it alone.' I'll never forget that night."
"Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I'm past that age."
"It's a business you go into because your an egocentric. It's a very embarrassing profession."
"Death will be a great relief. No more interviews."
"When I started out, I didn't have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous."
"Death will be a great relief. No more interviews."
"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around."
"Only the really plain people know about love - the very fascinating ones try so hard to create an impression that they soon exhaust their talents."
"If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."
"Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about."
"If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."
"Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do."
"If you want to give up the admiration of thousands of men for the distain of one, go ahead, get married."
"My greatest strength is common sense. I'm really a standard brand - like Campbell's tomato soup or Baker's chocolate."
"Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself."
"To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time."
"Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do."
"I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex."
"As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work."