Katharine Hepburn Quotes

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to, and I made enough money to support myself. And I ain’t afraid of being alone.

Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.

I’m a personality as well as an actress. Show me an actress who isn’t a personality, and you’ll show me a woman who isn’t a star.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it’s what you are expected to give which is everything.

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

Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.

Being a movie star, and this applies to all of them, means being looked at from every possible direction. You are never left at peace, you’re just fair game.

If you belittle a girl’s work, you belittle the girl.

I’m an actress, not a pin-up.

I’m not a great beauty. I’m an actress. I’ve always been an actress.

Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession.

Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.

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.

I believe in hard work. It keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.

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.

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.

Love means never having to say you’re sorry.

As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.

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

Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book.

Acting is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

If you always do what interests you, then at least one person is pleased.

If you don’t wear clothes, you don’t need a closet. I’ve got an aura, that’s what I have.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

Without trust, words become the hollow sound of a wooden gong. With trust, words become life itself.

I think most people long to be painterly, but they instead hire a decorator.

If you need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.

Whether you’re on the right side or the wrong side, you’re still the one with responsibility.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do.

Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living.

You can’t change the music of your soul.

Real power is usually silent, like oxygen.

I was born lucky, and I have lived lucky. What I had was used. What I still have is being used. Lucky.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

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.

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.

Listen to the song of life.

You can fool a person for seven years. And you can fool the next person for seven more years. And after that, you have to fool yourself.

If you need a woman to take care of you, you have to admit that you’re useless.

Some women can’t say the word lesbian… even when their mouth is full of one.

If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

Death is the ultimate orgasm.

Love isn’t a lightheaded hunt for a man who will prop up your ego.

You learn by living. Everything else is a damn lie.

Cultivate an ability to entertain yourself because you’ll always be alone at some point.