Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. Profoundly inspirational Katharine Hepburn quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.
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Famous Katharine Hepburn Quotes
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Kindness is one of the greatest gifts you can bestow upon another. If someone is in need, lend them a helping hand. Do not wait for a thank you. True kindness lies within the act of giving without the expectation of something in return. – Katharine Hepburn
If you follow all of the rules, you’ll miss all of the fun. – Katharine Hepburn
There are no laurels in life, just new challenges. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I was born lucky, and I have lived lucky. What I had was used. What I still have is being used. Lucky. – Katharine Hepburn
Loved people are loving people. – Katharine Hepburn
Its a force of life, sex; you cant deny the thrill of riding high, wide and handsome with someone you love. – Katharine Hepburn
Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That’s what I’ve done. – Katharine Hepburn
Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer. – Katharine Hepburn
I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done; as long as I enjoyed it at the time – Katharine Hepburn
Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do. But beautiful women don’t need to know about men. It’s the men who have to know about beautiful women. – Katharine Hepburn
Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four. – Katharine Hepburn
Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Our Constitution was not intended to be used by … any group to foist its personal religious beliefs on the rest of us. – Katharine Hepburn
The lack of work destroys people. – Katharine Hepburn
To be loved is very demoralizing – Katharine Hepburn
The shakes stop if you drink enough, but then so does everything else. – Katharine Hepburn
Life is full of censorship. I cant spit in your eye. – Katharine Hepburn
Bogart was like Henry Fonda – proud and happy to be an actor. – Katharine Hepburn
I don’t think that work ever really destroyed anybody. I think that lack of work destroys them a hell of a lot more. – Katharine Hepburn
Two of an actress’s greatest assets are love and pain. A great actress, even a good actress, must have plenty of both in her life. – Katharine Hepburn
It’s a business you go into because your an egocentric. It’s a very embarrassing profession. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I find a woman’s point of view much grander and finer than a man’s. – Katharine Hepburn
With all the opportunities I had, I could have done more. And if I’d done more, I could have been quite remarkable. – Katharine Hepburn
Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession. – Katharine Hepburn
To live creatively free, do what you know how to do now, then ‘act as if’ you know how to do the rest. – Katharine Hepburn
I would have been a terrible mother because I’m basically a very selfish human being. Not that that has stopped most people going off and having children. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
All my life, I’ve stayed at parties too long because I didn’t know when to go. – Katharine Hepburn
Enemies are so stimulating. – Katharine Hepburn
As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work. – Katharine Hepburn
Acting is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself. – Katharine Hepburn
We were brought up in the school that teaches: You do what the script tells you. Deliver the goods without comment. Live it-do it-or shut up. After all, the writer is what’s important. If the script is good and you don’t get in its way, it will come off okay. I never discussed a script with Spence [Spencer Tracy]; we just did it. The same with Hank [Henry Fonda] in On Golden Pond. Naturally and unconsciously we joined into what I call a musical necessity-the chemistry that brings out the essence of the characters and the work. – Katharine Hepburn
Without discipline, there’s no life at all. – Katharine Hepburn
To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time. – Katharine Hepburn
I could peel you like a pear and god himself would see the justice in it. – Katharine Hepburn
People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be. – Katharine Hepburn
You give because you love and cannot help giving. – Katharine Hepburn
It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack. – Katharine Hepburn
I’ve made forty-three pictures. Naturally I’m adorable in all of them. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I don’t believe in marriage. It’s bloody impractical. ‘To love, honor, and obey.’ If it weren’t, you wouldn’t have to sign a contract. – Katharine Hepburn
The notion that work is a burden is a terrible mistake. Working and facing up to one’s responsibilities: That’s happiness. – Katharine Hepburn
It’s how you live that really counts – Katharine Hepburn
I was fearless…and lawless. – Katharine Hepburn
If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun. – Katharine Hepburn
As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give – which is everything. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Don’t give in! Make your own trail. Don’t moan. Don’t complain. Think positively. – Katharine Hepburn
I believe how I act today will affect how I am tomorrow. – Katharine Hepburn
Never complain. Never explain. – Katharine Hepburn
You can’t change the music of your soul. – Katharine Hepburn
You politicians remain professional because the voters remain amateur. – Katharine Hepburn
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’ve made enough money to support myself, and ain’t afraid of being alone – Katharine Hepburn
If you need a helping hand, you can find one at the end of your arm. – Katharine Hepburn
Listen to the song of life. – Katharine Hepburn
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
It’s not what you start in life, it’s what you finish. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Don’t moan, don’t whine, don’t blame. Just get on with it. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
When I’ve been unsuccessful, I’ve been controlled. When I’ve been successful, I’ve been in control. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex. – Katharine Hepburn
What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate. – Katharine Hepburn
Life is hard. After all, it kills you. – Katharine Hepburn
Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
My greatest strength is common sense. I’m really a standard brand – like Campbell’s tomato soup or Baker’s chocolate. – Katharine Hepburn
I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. – Katharine Hepburn
Death will be a great relief. No more interviews. – Katharine Hepburn
It’s a rather rude gesture, but at least it’s clear what you mean. – Katharine Hepburn
When I started out, I didn’t have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous. – Katharine Hepburn
If you want to give up the admiration of thousands of men for the distain of one, go ahead, get married. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in. – Katharine Hepburn
Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
Living wasn’t easy for you, was it? You couldn’t enter your own life, but you could be someone else. You weren’t you then; you were safe. – Katharine Hepburn
Drive on. We’ll sweep up the blood later! – Katharine Hepburn
The most minor gifts and not a very high class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four. – Katharine Hepburn
The noise is so loud that birds, waves, and people are silenced by the frantic roar of morons screaming and tearing back and forth, back and forth, devastating the peace of a quiet day at the beach and the joy of fellow boatmen on the water. – Katharine Hepburn
Life’s what’s important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy – and then death. – Katharine Hepburn
I love rain. It’s lucky, I always think. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
What acting means is that you’ve got to get out of your own skin. – Katharine Hepburn
It’s a new low for actresses when you have to wonder what is between her ears instead of her legs. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
You learn in life that the only person you can really correct and change is yourself. – Katharine Hepburn
Man who stands on toilet, gets high on pot! – Katharine Hepburn
When a man says he likes a woman in a skirt, I tell him to try one. – Katharine Hepburn
A boy sows a wild oat or two, the world winks. A girl does the same — scandal. – Katharine Hepburn
Time is the stuff of which life is made. – Katharine Hepburn
I have loved and been in love. There’s a big difference. – Katharine Hepburn
A sharp knife cuts the quickest and hurts the least. – Katharine Hepburn
I think everyone is an opportunist if they have an opportunity. – Katharine Hepburn
Show me an actress who isn’t a personality and I’ll show you a woman who isn’t a star. – Katharine Hepburn
How wonderful are the women and men in the world who feed us. Especially those who feed us with no salary. The mothers—I thought. The wives. – Katharine Hepburn
Children need boundaries, so they can know how far they have to go to get beyond them. – Katharine Hepburn
I have had twenty years of perfect companionship with a man among men. He is a rock and a protection. I have never regretted it. – Katharine Hepburn
Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer, – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
The calla lilies are in bloom again. – Katharine Hepburn
The time to make up your mind about people is never. – Katharine Hepburn
I welcome death. In death there are no interviews! – Katharine Hepburn
Who is Katharine Hepburn? It took me a long time to create that creature. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I can’t say I believe in prizes. I was a whiz in the three-legged race – that’s something you CAN win. – Katharine Hepburn
You sell yourself. The part that I sell is the creature. The adorable part. – Katharine Hepburn
Just write the best you can about the things that concern you most. I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun. – Katharine Hepburn
I think the reason that very few people really fall in love with anyone is that they’re not willing to pay the price. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
I always wanted to be a movie actress. I thought it was very romantic. And it was. – Katharine Hepburn
People have grown fond of me, like some old building. – Katharine Hepburn
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. – Katharine Hepburn
