Quotes

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.

[on Hollywood] They didn't like me until I got into a leg show.

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.

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.

[on fashion] 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.

[on marriage] 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.

Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That's what I've done.

Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and at the same time selling yourself.

It's a bore - B-O-R-E - when you find you've begun to rot.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

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.

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

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.

1993] I have loved and been in love. There's a big difference.

[1993] 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.

[1993] The lack of work destroys people.

[Describing Cary Grant] He is personality functioning.

[asked what star quality is] 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.