Katharine Hepburn Quotes

To put it simply: There was no bunk about Bogie. He was a man.

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

Bogart was like Henry Fonda - proud and happy to be an actor.

I like to move fast, and wearing high heels was tough, and low heels with a skirt is unattractive. So pants took over.

The thing about life is that you must survive. Life is going to be difficult, and dreadful things will happen. What you do is move along, get on with it, and be tough. Not in the sense of being mean to others, but being tough with yourself and making a deadly effort not to be defeated.

Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking.

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

I just recently realized that women are supposed to be the inferior sex

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.

Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer.

The woman's position in the world today is so much harder than a man's that it makes me choke every time I hear a man complain about anything.

Time is the stuff of which life is made.

I've always thought men and women are not too well suited to each other. It's inevitable that they should come together, but, again, how well suited are they to live together in the same house?

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.

People think that I'm tough and strong and that I kicked my way through everything. But they are wrong. The truth is that when I was young I was adorable and a trembling wreck.

Heaven to be the first one up and to eat breakfast all alone.

Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer,

Love fattens on smooth words.

I find a woman's point of view much grander and finer than a man's.

Never complain. Never explain.

The terrible thing about acting in the theater is that you have to do it at night.

Afraid of death? Not at all. Be a great relief. Then I wouldn't have to talk to you.

Being an actor is such a humiliating experience because you are selling yourself to the public, your face, your personality, and that is humiliating. As you get older, it becomes more humiliating because you've got less to sell.

To live creatively free, do what you know how to do now, then 'act as if' you know how to do the rest.

When a man says he likes a woman in a skirt, I tell him to try one.

I was fearless...and lawless.

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.

My father, a surgeon and urologist, studied sex professionally all his life. Before he died at 82, he told me he hadn't come to any conclusions about it at all.

I'm what is known as gradually disintegrating. I don't fear the next world, or anything. I don't fear hell, and I don't look forward to heaven.

I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret if you have any sense, and if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid.

The only time I am ever miserable is when I do something just for the money.

A boy sows a wild oat or two, the world winks. A girl does the same
scandal.

If it interests you, they don't have to pay you. It's a fascinating business anyway-it's very nice to be paid-but when you do thrilling material, it's like buying a piece of furniture that's really good.

Life is full of censorship. I cant spit in your eye.

You give because you love and cannot help giving.

I don't believe in religion. I believe the example of Christ. I believe in the example of a perfect human being that if you can live for other people away from yourself you will be happy. If you live for yourself you will be unhappy and then you will not be able to sleep or do anything else ... finally. I think insofar, and I really believe this, insofar as people do live with the other fellow [God] in mind, they have to be happy you know? Because it raises you up.

Once a crowd chased me for an autograph. 'Beat it, ' I said, 'go sit on a tack!' 'We made you, ' they said. 'Like hell you did, ' I told them.

What in the world would we do without our libraries?

I truly believe that people do the best they can.

I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.

When you know better, it's easier to do better
George Chryst

If you have fame, you never feel that you have fame, if you have the brains of a flea. Because fame is something that's over back of you. It ain't ahead ... Not ahead at all. I mean, if you've done it that's great, but "what are you going to do now?" is the only thing that matters.

I have no romantic feelings about age. Either you are interesting at any age or you are not. There is nothing particularly interesting about being old-or being young for that matter.

Few people know what they mean when they say, "I love you." ... Well, what does the word love mean? It means total interest. I think the reason very few people really fall in love with anyone is they're not willing to pay the price. The price is you have to adjust yourself to them.

If you follow all of the rules, you'll miss all of the fun.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.

It's life isn't it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels.

You suddenly realize what a tremendous opportunity it is just to be alive. The potential. If you can keep a-goin'--you actually can do it. So just keep a-goin'--you can win. It's when you stop that you're done.

I don't give a damn about marriage. But I do care about honor.

People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.

To be loved is very demoralizing.

Most people our brought up to believe they are as good as the person next to them, I was told I was better.

If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.

Cold sober, I find myself absolutely fascinating.

I don't feel the slightest interest in the next world; I think it's here. And I think anything good that you're going to do, you should do for other people here and not so you can try to have a happy time in the next world.

With all the opportunities I had, I could have done more. And if I'd done more, I could have been quite remarkable.

Acting is the perfect idiot's profession.

I am a total me, me, Me person.

It is the plain women who know about love; the beautiful women are too busy being fascinating.

If you survive long enough, you're revered-rather like an old building.

Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.

I thought, can you think of any really good reason not to do it? Except that, oh, I'm so shy, or oh, my private life, or oh, are they going to find out how boring I am? You know? And that was the only reason now, in a sense, not to do television. Because it certainly is a method of expression, which has to be accepted as these things come along.

I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.

Don't give in! Make your own trail. Don't moan. Don't complain. Think positively.

I was brought up by two extremely intelligent people who gave me the greatest gift that man can give anyone, and that is freedom from fear.

I am an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.

Show me an actress who isn't a personality and I'll show you a woman who isn't a star.

Without discipline, there's no life at all.

The notion that work is a burden is a terrible mistake. Working and facing up to one's responsibilities: That's happiness.

The average Hollywood film star's ambition is to be admired by an American, courted by an Italian, married to an Englishman and have a French boyfriend.

It's either some kind of electricity or some kind of energy. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, I've got it.

Vitality! That's the pursuit of life, isn't it?

Man who stands on toilet, gets high on pot!

I have always lived my life exactly as I wanted. I've tried to please no one but myself ... but I'm entirely content. I can sit back in my old age and not regret a single moment, not wish to change a single thing. It's what I wish for you ... a life with no regrets.

You can't just be talented: You have to be terribly smart and energetic and ruthless. You also have to become necessary to people, by working hard and well and bringing more than your bones and your skin to the project. Don't just show up. Transform the work, yourself, and everybody around you. Be needed. Be interesting. Be something no one else can be
and consistently.

The shakes stop if you drink enough, but then so does everything else.

What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.

It's a business you go into because you're an egocentric. It's a very embarrassing profession.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything

My father had been disgusted and heartsick over the fact that I wanted to act. Thought it a silly profession closely allied to street-walking.

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.

Life's what's important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy - and then death.

Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.

The lack of work destroys people.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.

It is the ordinary woman who knows something about love; the gorgeous ones are too busy being gorgeous.

I won't go to a restaurant to eat with friends, always join them afterwards for coffee. In company I always get over enthusiastic, and this leads to indigestion.

I think all good actors are personalities. If they're not, they're not stars. What makes you a star is horsepower.

People have grown fond of me, like some old building.

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?

I can remember walking as a child. It was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition.

Friendship, if somebody holds out his hand toward you, you've got to reach and take it ... There are too many people alone, and if you're lucky enough for somebody to want you as a friend, it's an obligation.

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.

Funny the things which civilization has to offer when one misses. Flooring is a lovely thing. Gives one confidence. During my five weeks' occupancy the mud floor stayed wet in spite of great care on my part not to slop the water again. It never did properly dry, because the hut was necessarily dark. No direct sun came in, and the humidity was so terrific that even in direct sunlight nothing ever dried out. Curious to live on a slippery surface. A floor is a very important item.

Live dangerously. There's a lot to be said for sinning.

Let's just say that where a change was required, I adjusted. In every relationship that exists, people have to seek a way to survive. If you really care about the person, you do what's necessary, or that's the end. For the first time, I found that I really could change, and the qualities I most admired in myself I gave up. I stopped being loud and bossy ... Oh, all right. I was still loud and bossy, but only behind his back.

Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

I love rain. It's lucky, I always think.