If you always do what interests you, at least one person will be pleased.
You can say or write anything about me you like. Just don't, for any reason, ever tell the truth.
I don't give a damn about marriage. But I do care about honor.
The only time I am ever miserable is when I do something just for the money.
I am a total me, me, Me person.
Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer.
The shakes stop if you drink enough, but then so does everything else.
Most people are raised to believe they are just as good as the next person. I was always told I was better.
I would have made a terrible parent. The first time my child didn't do what I wanted, I'd kill him.
I'm a legend because I've survived over a long period of time and still seem to be master of my fate - I'm still
paddling the goddamned boat myself.
I don't believe in marriage. It's bloody impractical to love, honour and obey.
They'll miss me, like an old monument. Like the Flatiron Building.
I was totally unaware that we were the second-rate sex.
Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now
and then.
I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be inferior.
Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That's what I've done.
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.
If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.
Life is hard. After all, it kills you.
Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do.
It's a bore - B-O-R-E - when you find you've begun to rot.
If you lead a public life, people are much more on to you than you think.
I think the reason that very few people really fall in love with anyone is that they're not willing to pay the
price.
I like to move fast, and wearing high heels was tough, and low heels with a skirt is unattractive. So pants took
over.
You sell yourself. The part that I sell is the creature. The adorable part.
Two of the greatest assets for an actress are love and pain. She must have plenty of both in her life.
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 think all good actors are personalities. If they're not, they're not stars. What makes you a star is
horsepower.
I didn't have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.
I think she was a great actress. But even more than that, she carried so much mystery with her.
From the moment she walked on the screen, you simply couldn't take your eyes off her, you wanted to know everything
about her, and you knew she wasn't going to give it to you. That's a movie star. And that's what we all wanted to
be. -- on Greta Garbo.
People have grown fond of me, like some old building.
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.
Wouldn't it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?
I don't regret anything I've ever done; As long as I enjoyed it at the time.
Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is
everything.
I often wonder whether men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now
and then.
Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer.
There are no laurels in life . . . just new challenges.
They didn't like me until I got into a leg show. -- on Hollywood.
I can't say I believe in prizes. I was a whiz in the three-legged race - that's something you CAN win.
Afraid of death? Not at all. Be a great relief. Then I wouldn't have to talk to you.
I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.
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.
It's bloody impractical. "To love, honor, and obey". If it weren't, you wouldn't have to sign a contract.
At my age, you don't get much variety - usually some old nut who's off her track.
With all the opportunities I had, I could have done more. And if I'd done more, I could have been quite
remarkable.
I find a woman's point of view much grander and finer than a man's.
I remember as a child going around with "Votes For Women" balloons. I learnt early what it is to be snubbed for a
good cause.
Life is full of censorship. I can't spit in your eye.
Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and at the same time selling yourself.
I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're
good - or because they're lucky.
Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well find some way that is going to be
interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around wondering about yourself.
If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.
Life's what's important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy. Acting's just waiting for a custard pie.
That's all.
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.
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.
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.
If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building.
Enemies are so stimulating.
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.
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.
I welcome death. In death there are no interviews!
I'm 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 each other.
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.
Listen to the song of life.
Who is Katharine Hepburn? It took me a long time to create that creature.
I don't fear death, it must be like a long sleep.
I always wanted to be a movie actress. I thought it was very romantic. And it was.
"Isn't it fun getting older?" is really a terrible fallacy. That's like saying I prefer driving an old car
with a flat tire.
I have loved and been in love. There's a big difference.
In some ways I've lived my life like a man, made my own decisions, etc. I've been as terrified as the next person,
but you've got to keep going.
The lack of work destroys people.
He is personality functioning. -- describing Cary Grant.
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. -- asked what star quality is.
I have one, Ms. Walters. I'll wear it to your funeral. -- when Barbara Walters asked her if she owned a skirt.
I don't think he's a limited actor at all - I think he's a very gifted actor. Although I'm afraid he may be a
limited person. -- on Marlon Brando.
He has the ability to make me trust myself. -- on director George Cukor.
He was a real man -- nothing feminine about him. He knew he was a natural aristocrat -- better than anybody. -- on Humphrey Bogart.
Bogart was like Henry Fonda -- proud and happy to be an actor.
He can do anything. A bit cuckoo, but sweet and terribly funny. -- on Peter O'Toole.
My, I like Judy Holliday! She looks like a Monet model. And she's so -- so
defenseless. I like defenseless people. They're the best.
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.
When you buy it, and it's great, you get enormous pleasure out of seeing it, and you never remember how much it
cost.
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.
Cold sober, I find myself absolutely fascinating.
Most people, I figure, have a reservoir that you walk into town with your little box of goodies, you know. And this
is me, and this is what I have to offer. Then, after a while, you've sold all those goodies, and if you don't go
away and fill up another box ... you're just repeating. Then you're just growing old, and then, for a you know,
certain people, there's a time when you're switching from, uh, uh, you're too old to do this, and you're too young
to do that, and you have to figure out: what are you? And what really interests you? You see, we're all creatures
of habit, and we get in a rut, and we run down that rut, happy as bugs. Well, sometimes you're bloody sick of what
you're doing. And you haven't got the brains to stop. You know. And you could change, change.
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. -- about her first TV interview, in 1973.
As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.
Without discipline, there's no life at all.
I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're
good or they're because they're lucky. If they have time to think.
Dick Cavett: I feel I have to ask you this. Everybody says that Garbo had
something that no one had before or since. I'm willing to believe that this is not true.
Kate: No, this is true.
Cavett: It is?
Kate: Yes I think so. She had a real mystique, and a real , real gift for movie acting.
Cavett: And what is it – if I were in a room with her and the cameras were there and she were
here, and I could see her on the set of Camille, would I see that in that room?
Kate: Yes, I think you would – I think she was mysterious – is mysterious.
Cavett: Have you meet her?
Kate: Yes, yes – many times. She is charming and sweet and nice and funny. But she's – she
certainly photographically had something that nobody else had. I think that's what made her, you don't become that
famous for no reason.
Cavett: Do you get the feeling that she got pleasure from her career, though, she seems not
to…
Kate: Yes, I think she did, I think people – everybody has a different way of living, you know,
they have to… some people have happy natures, some people have – I have a happy nature, so I have a good time, you
know.
(Some minutes later…..)
Cavett: They say, someone said once that we have no way of knowing if Garbo ever
read a book – do you read a book?
