A biography for Katharine Hepburnhasn’t been written yet.
“My greatest strength is common sense. I'm really a standard brand - like Campbell's tomato soup or Baker's chocolate.”
“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
“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.”
“Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn't interest you, don't do it - I would have made a terrible mother.”
“Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.”
“It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.”
“Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.”
“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything.”
“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”
“Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.”
“Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.”
“Acting is the perfect idiot's profession.”
“To be loved is very demoralizing.”
“Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.”
“The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower—suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day, and now I place them here in memory of something that has died.”
“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.”
“Never complain. Never explain.”
“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.”
“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.”