The Quotebook
What was
actually said.
A record of Cary Grant's recorded words. Every line carries its speaker, its year, the kind of source it came from, and a mark: verified where it can be traced to a dated primary source, attributed where it is widely reported but untraced, disputed where the attribution does not hold up.
By subject
- On identityArchie Leach, Cary Grant, and the distance he kept between them.
- On eleganceDress, proportion, and the discipline behind an apparently effortless wardrobe.
- On actingCraft, instinct, and the charge that he only ever played himself.
- On HollywoodThe studio system, the factory floor, and the business of being a star.
- On money and wantA Bristol boyhood without a bicycle, and what success does not repair.
- On marriageFive marriages, and a late-life honesty about all of them.
- On retirementLeaving the screen in 1966, while still in demand.
- On HitchcockFour pictures, and the director he understood best.
- On Bristol and his fatherThe city he came from, and Elias Leach, who is in more of these lines than anyone.
- On livingFormulas, luck, and a deliberately unhelpful answer to the question of how.
- Wit and deflectionThe deadpan, which was a method and not merely a manner.
- On the pressMisquotation, publicity, and why he kept his opinions to himself.
Verified
“You know, I’m too old for this sort of evening.”
Cary Grant as Philip Adams · 1958 · film · Indiscreet (1958)
Adams, at the end of a long night of romantic manoeuvre.
Spoken as Philip Adams in Indiscreet (1958).
Verified
“It took time to be accepted; it almost took twenty years until I got to be like a well-advertised brand of tea. Housewives bought that kind rather than take a chance on a brand they are not familiar with.”
Verified
“I suppose you might call me the sophisticated type. I like to act with dialogue. Not with grunts.”
Verified
“I really am a happy, amusing fellow at heart. Trouble is I seem the only one left.”
Verified
“The film I most cared about was a flop. None But the Lonely Heart was the only time I played a character very near myself, a man unsure of himself, a drifter, a rake.”
Verified
“It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
On his personal code.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“I never dwell on past mistakes… There is too much to plan for the future to waste time complaining.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
On looking forward after three divorces.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“Elsie Mendl was a great friend of mine for many, many years. And I remember the creed by which she lived: Never complain, never explain.”
Verified
“It always amazes me that those who fight for the luxuries of life are the first to resent those who have them.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
On envy.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“Personally, I regard every knock as a boost.”
Verified
“Do not blame others for your own mistakes... YOU are Mother Nature. You have the power within you to be thin or fat, as you desire.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
On self-discipline, a subject he returned to often.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“There is too much heavy breathing and shooting going on.”
Cary Grant · 1986 · television
His verdict on contemporary movies, given from the stage months before his death.
Remark during A Conversation with Cary Grant, Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, New Jersey, May 1986.
Attributed
“I think most of us become actors because we want affection, love and applause.”
Attributed
“At last I am close to happiness and to being a real, actual person.”
Verified
“Take Hitler and stick him on the funny pages.”
Cary Grant as Walter Burns · 1940 · film · His Girl Friday (1940)
Burns clears the front page for his own story.
Spoken as Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (1940).
Verified
“Because I just went GAY all of a sudden!”
Cary Grant as David Huxley · 1938 · film · Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Huxley, caught in a marabou-trimmed negligee, explains himself. The line is widely cited as one of the first uses of the word in its modern sense in an American film.
Spoken as David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Verified
“You mean nothing must interfere with your work? Our marriage must entail no domestic entanglements of any kind.”
Cary Grant as David Huxley · 1938 · film · Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Huxley recites his fiancée's terms for their marriage.
Spoken as David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Verified
“Hello, friends and enemies.”
Cary Grant as C. K. Dexter Haven · 1940 · film · The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Dexter Haven arrives uninvited at the house of his former wife.
Spoken as C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940).
Verified
“This is developing into a very bad habit!”
Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster · 1944 · film · Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
On finding another body in the window seat.
Spoken as Mortimer Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Verified
“This is a very strange love affair.”
Cary Grant as T. R. Devlin · 1946 · film · Notorious (1946)
Devlin, coldly, on what is happening between him and Alicia Huberman.
Spoken as T. R. Devlin in Notorious (1946).
Verified
“Sure it was your fault. You were gonna have dinner with him, the Dutchman hired him, I sent him up on schedule, the fog came in, a tree got in the way. All your fault. Forget it.”
Cary Grant as Geoff Carter · 1939 · film · Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Carter absolves Bonnie of a pilot's death by pretending to blame her.
Spoken as Geoff Carter in Only Angels Have Wings (1939).
Verified
“I suppose the fact is I love feeling free inside even better than I love you, Julia.”
Verified
“Let me tell you something. I am not a father figure. I am not an uncle figure, or a brother or a cousin figure. In fact, the only figure I intend being is a total stranger figure.”
Cary Grant as Walter Eckland · 1964 · film · Father Goose (1964)
Eckland resists the schoolgirls stranded on his island. Grant took the part specifically to play against his own glamour.
Spoken as Walter Eckland in Father Goose (1964).
Verified
“I can hardly wait for you to grow up.”
Cary Grant as Nickie Ferrante · 1957 · film · An Affair to Remember (1957)
Ferrante teases Terry McKay aboard ship.
Spoken as Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember (1957).
Verified
“Sometimes angels rush in where fools fear to tread.”
Cary Grant as Dudley · 1947 · film · The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Dudley the angel justifies his interference in the Broughams' marriage.
Spoken as Dudley in The Bishop's Wife (1947).
Disputed
“Judy, Judy, Judy.”
Disputed
“Old Cary Grant fine. How you?”
Disputed
“Acting is a matter of hiding what you have to show and showing what you have to hide.”
Disputed
“I made a lot of mistakes out of loneliness. Consequently, I know a great deal about it.”
Disputed
“I was a failure as a boy and became a success as a man because I always was and always will be Archibald Alexander Leach, only I became better at hiding it than he ever could.”
Attributed
“Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life.”
Alfred Hitchcock · interview
Hitchcock directed Grant four times, in Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest.
Widely repeated as a Hitchcock remark; the original interview and date have not been established.
Attributed
“I loved working with Cary — every minute of it. Between takes he was so amusing with his cockney stories. I was his best audience. I laughed and laughed and laughed. The more I laughed, the more he went on.”
Irene Dunne · interview
Dunne made three pictures with Grant: The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife and Penny Serenade.
Attributed recollection of working with Grant; the original interview and date have not been established.
Verified
“I wonder if audiences realize what is the hardest thing in the world - it is for every actor to be what you call ‘natural.’ Whenever I hear people say that Crosby or Gary Cooper just play themselves in pictures, I have to laugh. There is no such thing.”
Cary Grant · 1961 · essay · Films and Filming
Rebutting the idea that some actors merely play themselves.
'What it Means to be a Star,' Films and Filming, July 1961.
Verified
“I learned that you appreciate work most while you’re at leisure, and leisure while you’re at work. It’s like being married or single. You can’t be both at the same time.”
Verified
“High comedy and polished words, that’s the hardest to write and to act but it’s the best. And it lasts the longest, too.”
Verified
“My present status in the motion picture industry is wonderful for my ego. But notice, I don’t say it can’t change.”
Verified
“When I’m married I want to be single, and when I’m single I want to be married.”
Verified
“I do it because I enjoy it. That’s reason enough, isn’t it?”
Cary Grant · 1986 · interview
At eighty-two, explaining why he was still touring with A Conversation with Cary Grant.
Philip Wuntch, 'A Few Words with Cary Grant,' syndicated newspaper interview, 1986.
Verified
“Ah, Maggie, in the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only the expedient exaggeration.”
Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill · 1959 · film · North by Northwest (1959)
Thornhill jokes with his mother about his trade, minutes before he is mistaken for a spy.
Spoken as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959).
Verified
“Well, well. You’re the first woman I’ve ever met who said yes when she meant yes.”
Cary Grant as Johnnie Aysgarth · 1941 · film · Suspicion (1941)
Johnnie Aysgarth, charming, early in the courtship — before the audience learns to distrust him.
Spoken as Johnnie Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941).
Disputed
“To all of you out there who do not know me, I wish you a Merry Christmas, and to all of you who do know me, I ask, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’”
Verified
“My name is Rochard. You’ll think I’m a bride but actually I’m a husband. There’ll be a moment or two of confusion but, if we all keep our heads, everything will be fine.”
Cary Grant as Capt. Henri Rochard · 1949 · film · I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Rochard introduces himself to the United States Army.
Spoken as Capt. Henri Rochard in I Was a Male War Bride (1949).
Verified
“We may be pink, and coming in by the grace of a woman’s brassiere, but we’re coming in!”
Cary Grant as Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman · 1959 · film · Operation Petticoat (1959)
Sherman brings his pink submarine home.
Spoken as Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman in Operation Petticoat (1959).
Disputed
“Everybody thinks I’m relaxed. I’ve spent my whole life tense.”
Attributed
“I’ve been called cheap so often I no longer wince at the word.”
Verified
“For more than half my fifty-eight years I have cautiously peered from behind the facade of a man known as Cary Grant. The protection of that facade proved both an advantage and a disadvantage. If I couldn’t clearly see out, how could anyone see in?”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
The opening lines of his autobiography, written in his own hand for the magazine.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Verified
“No money, no material reward is comparable to the praise, the shouts of well done and accompanying pat on the back of one’s fellowman.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
Recalling schoolboy applause, and the applause that followed it for the rest of his life.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Verified
“I promised myself that I’ll only play in another picture if the role is really worthwhile.”
Cary Grant · 1961 · essay · Films and Filming
On becoming selective about roles.
'What it Means to be a Star,' Films and Filming, July 1961.
Verified
“I did quit once for 18 months. I can’t say I was bored, never have been. But I just wasn’t as interested in life. During my retirement I had the time to indulge in some long, long thoughts about myself, my work, my marriages. Did I find any answers? I don’t know.”
Cary Grant · 1961 · essay · Films and Filming
On an earlier withdrawal from filmmaking.
'What it Means to be a Star,' Films and Filming, July 1961.
Verified
“I’ve been called the longest lasting young man about town. It’s ridiculous for a man in his ’fifties: but then until thirty-five a man is often a self-centered idiot. After 35, he should try to begin to make more sense. I know I was impossible before 35; I’m hardly possible now.”
Verified
“I really don’t like to speak about myself... and neither do I want to bother with the many ridiculous rumors that have been told by columnists, placing me into close relations, even matrimony, with the world’s most beautiful women.”
Verified
“I still want to go on making pictures until I’m dead . . . or longer.”
Verified
“I often think my life has been a failure. But whenever I drop into a theater and hear women laugh at one of my films, I think, well, if I brightened their day before they went home and did the dishes, maybe my life wasn’t wasted, after all.”
Verified
“On The Awful Truth we just clicked. She’d been a weepie star and comedy was strange to her... She was the sweetest smelling of my leading ladies and such a lady.”
Verified
“I’m prepared. I have a gun and I know how to shoot, and whoever comes calling without an invitation will get it in the rear end.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
Joking about intruders at his house.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“Anyone can do well... It’s all out there waiting for you to take. But first you must reach out and get it. You must work for your riches. You cannot expect it to fall into your lap.”
Verified
“I used to hide behind the façade that was Cary Grant… I didn’t know if I were Archie Leach, or Cary Grant, and I wasn’t taking any chances.”
Cary Grant · 1964 · interview · Motion Picture
On the split between the name he was born with and the one he invented.
'Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About,' Motion Picture, June 1964.
Verified
“My press agent was very indignant over something written about me not too long ago. ‘Look,’ I told him. ‘I’ve known this character for many years, and the faults he sees in me are really the faults in himself that he hates.’”
Attributed
“Every one of my wives left me. I don’t know why, maybe they got bored, tired of me. I don’t know. Maybe I was making the mistake of thinking that each of my wives was my mother, that there would never be a replacement once she left.”
Attributed
“I’m not at all proud of my marriage record, but I have wanted a family for years, and I finally have it.”
Verified
“Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself slightly killed.”
Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill · 1959 · film · North by Northwest (1959)
Thornhill protests his innocence to the men who have mistaken him for George Kaplan.
Spoken as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959).
Verified
“There’s been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey.”
Cary Grant as Walter Burns · 1940 · film · His Girl Friday (1940)
Burns tries sentiment, having failed with everything else.
Spoken as Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (1940).
Verified
“When a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he’s in no position to run.”
Cary Grant as David Huxley · 1938 · film · Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Huxley accounts for his conduct during the evening's chaos.
Spoken as David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby (1938).
Verified
“Be whatever you like, you’re my Tracy.”
Cary Grant as C. K. Dexter Haven · 1940 · film · The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Dexter Haven accepts Tracy Lord as she is, which is the point of the picture.
Spoken as C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940).
Verified
“Stop underplaying, I can’t hear you!”
Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster · 1944 · film · Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Mortimer, a drama critic, cannot stop reviewing even in a crisis.
Spoken as Mortimer Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Verified
“Dry your eyes, baby; it’s out of character.”
Cary Grant as T. R. Devlin · 1946 · film · Notorious (1946)
Devlin rebuffs Alicia's tears after her father's death — one of the cruellest lines Grant ever spoke.
Spoken as T. R. Devlin in Notorious (1946).
Verified
“Miss Huberman is first, last, and always not a lady. She may be risking her life, but when it comes to being a lady, she doesn’t hold a candle to your wife.”
Cary Grant as T. R. Devlin · 1946 · film · Notorious (1946)
Devlin turns on the colleagues who have been sneering at Alicia's past.
Spoken as T. R. Devlin in Notorious (1946).
Verified
“Danielle, do me a favor. Don’t call me a cat.”
Cary Grant as John Robie · 1955 · film · To Catch a Thief (1955)
Robie, retired from burglary, dislikes the nickname.
Spoken as John Robie in To Catch a Thief (1955).
Verified
“In about a week, you’ll either collect or lose your shirt.”
Cary Grant as Geoff Carter · 1939 · film · Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Gallows humour after a fatal crash.
Spoken as Geoff Carter in Only Angels Have Wings (1939).
Verified
“The world is changing out there. There’s a lot of new, exciting ideas running around. Some of them might be right and some might be cockeyed, but they’re affecting all our lives.”
Verified
“You’ve got an old-fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, ’til death do us part.’ Why, divorce doesn’t mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.”
Cary Grant as Walter Burns · 1940 · film · His Girl Friday (1940)
Walter Burns argues his ex-wife out of remarrying.
Spoken as Walter Burns in His Girl Friday (1940).
Verified
“I’m going out to get some popcorn and pink lemonade. I’ve just seen a three-ring circus.”
Cary Grant as Jerry Warriner · 1937 · film · The Awful Truth (1937)
Warriner's exit line after an evening with his wife's new suitor and his mother.
Spoken as Jerry Warriner in The Awful Truth (1937).
Verified
“I wish Lucy would go out and get some fun for herself now and again. It would do her good. That’s the trouble with most marriages today. People are always imagining things. The road to Reno is paved with suspicions.”
Cary Grant as Jerry Warriner · 1937 · film · The Awful Truth (1937)
Warriner's philosophy of marriage, delivered while he schemes to undo his own divorce.
Spoken as Jerry Warriner in The Awful Truth (1937).
Verified
“Well, on the contrary, the process of turning a man into a woman is enormously complicated, but I’ll do my best.”
Cary Grant as Capt. Henri Rochard · 1949 · film · I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Rochard accepts his disguise. Grant played the whole film straight-faced, which is why it works.
Spoken as Capt. Henri Rochard in I Was a Male War Bride (1949).
Verified
“Women are not the sensitive sex. That’s one of the grand delusions of literature. Men are the true romanticists.”
Cary Grant as Philip Adams · 1958 · film · Indiscreet (1958)
Philip Adams lectures Anna Kalman on love.
Spoken as Philip Adams in Indiscreet (1958).
Verified
“I’ll beg, I’ll borrow, I’ll — please, Judge, I’ll sell anything I’ve got until I get going again. And she’ll never go hungry, she’ll never be without clothes, not so long as I’ve got two good hands, so help me!”
Cary Grant as Roger Adams · 1941 · film · Penny Serenade (1941)
Roger Adams pleads with a judge not to take his adopted daughter. The scene brought Grant his first Academy Award nomination.
Spoken as Roger Adams in Penny Serenade (1941).
Verified
“There must be something between us, even if it’s only an ocean.”
Cary Grant as Nickie Ferrante · 1957 · film · An Affair to Remember (1957)
Ferrante on the distance he is trying to keep.
Spoken as Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember (1957).
Verified
“The world changes, but two things remain constant: youth and beauty. They’re really one and the same thing. Not everybody — the only people who grow old were born old to begin with.”
Cary Grant as Dudley · 1947 · film · The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Dudley on ageing, spoken by an actor who would be accused of never doing it.
Spoken as Dudley in The Bishop's Wife (1947).
Verified
“You see, when a girl is under 21, she’s protected by law. When she’s over 65, she’s protected by nature. Anywhere in between, she’s fair game! Look out!”
Cary Grant as Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman · 1959 · film · Operation Petticoat (1959)
Sherman warns his crew about the nurses now aboard his submarine.
Spoken as Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman in Operation Petticoat (1959).
Verified
“I do! I don’t remember ever saying it in a movie, but now, every once in a while when I’m with friends, I say, ’Judeeee, Judeeee, Judeeee,’ and everyone breaks up. Isn’t that a good imitation of an imitation of an imitator?”
Verified
“Don’t go to extremes. Don’t hate too much and don’t love too much. Try to live somewhere in the middle... It is peaceful in the middle. You won’t be hurt in the middle.”
Attributed
“Everybody thinks I’m relaxed. I’m not relaxed at all. It’s a very hard-working profession, this acting business, when you do it as I do it.”
Cary Grant · 1971 · press · Look
On the labour behind the effortless manner.
C. Mangel, 'The New Women in the Life of Cary Grant,' Look, 23 February 1971.
Attributed
“I’ve had a lot of fine offers, but I’m cautious. I’d rather make one good picture a year than three indifferent ones.”
Verified
“I want to know how I stand, where I fit into the picture, what it’s all going to mean to me. I can’t find that out sitting behind some desk in an office, so as soon as I get enough money together, I’m gonna knock off for a while.”
Cary Grant as Johnny Case · 1938 · film · Holiday (1938)
Johnny Case explains the holiday of the title — an argument Grant himself would make about his own retirement thirty years later.
Spoken as Johnny Case in Holiday (1938).
Verified
“I was born in the provincial city of Bristol, England, but have avidly frequented the brightest capitals of the world ever since, and now keep a permanent residence in the so-called, though misnamed, glamour capital of Hollywood.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
Describing his origins at the start of the autobiography.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Verified
“My father made no more than a modest living and we had little money. Yet today I am considered, except among the wealthy, to be wealthy.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
On the distance between his Bristol childhood and his later fortune.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Verified
“I received only a sketchy education by most scholastic standards, lacked confidence and the courage to enjoy life, but on the screen seem to have successfully epitomized an informed, capable and happy man. A series of contradictions too evident to be coincidental.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
On the gap between the private man and the screen persona.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Verified
“I refuse to discuss my private life and my friendships and my family, present, past and future.”
Verified
“I learned everything from Mae West - well not quite everything, but almost everything. She knew so much. Her instinct was so true, her timing was perfect, her grasp of situations so right.”
Attributed
“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · interview
His most-quoted line about the distance between Archibald Leach and the persona he built; repeated by Grant in interviews across the 1960s and 1970s.
Grant's best-known remark, in circulation since the 1960s and quoted in Marc Eliot's Cary Grant: A Biography (2004). No dated primary interview has ever been produced for it.
Attributed
“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.”
Verified
“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”
Verified
“To play yourself, your true self, is the hardest thing in the world to do.”
Attributed
“I think that making love is the best form of exercise.”
Verified
“Probably no greater honour can come to any man than the appreciation and respect of his fellow workers.”
Attributed
“You know what’s wrong with Hollywood? They make pictures for people who don’t go to the movies.”
Verified
“I’ve often been accused by critics of being myself on-screen. But being oneself is more difficult than you’d suppose.”
Attributed
“Ah, beware of snobbery; it is the unwelcome recognition of one’s own past failings.”
Verified
“I’ve spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.”
Cary Grant · 1963 · memoir · Ladies' Home Journal
From his autobiographical writing on identity and the invented self.
Ladies' Home Journal, autobiographical series, 1963.
Attributed
“When I was a boy, I could not afford a bicycle. Now I could buy a hundred, and I want none of them.”
Attributed
“Divorce is a game played by lawyers.”
Verified
“Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.”
Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster · 1944 · film · Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
As Mortimer Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, dir. Frank Capra.
Spoken as Mortimer Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), directed by Frank Capra.
Attributed
“I don’t know how to make love on screen without making it look like a joke.”
Attributed
“The only way to make a good picture is to make it with good people.”
Verified
“It takes five hundred small details to add up to one favourable impression.”
Cary Grant · 1967 · essay
On dress and the discipline behind an apparently effortless wardrobe.
Verified
“Simplicity, to me, has always been the essence of good taste.”
Attributed
“I have always been aware of the fact that I am not a natural clothes horse; the clothes have to do the work.”
Attributed
“Do your job and demand your compensation — but in that order.”
Attributed
“I’d rather be a happy man than a great actor.”
Cary Grant · 1966 · interview
On his decision to leave the screen while still in demand.
Verified
“I could see no reason to go on. I’d had enough. I wanted to see my daughter grow up.”
Cary Grant · 1966 · interview
On retiring from film after Walk, Don't Run, following the birth of Jennifer Grant.
Attributed
“Old actors never die, they just lose their memory for lines.”
Attributed
“I’ve had a wonderful and I hope not too unusual life. I’ve had a lot of luck.”
Cary Grant · 1983 · stage appearance
On his career, from the conversation evenings he toured in the 1980s.
Attributed
“Hitchcock trusted the audience. That was the difference.”
Cary Grant · 1972 · interview
On working with Alfred Hitchcock across four pictures.
Attributed
“I don’t think any actor ever really knows what he is doing. He only knows what he is trying to do.”
Verified
“My father used to say, let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary.”
Verified
“I’m opposed to actors taking sides in public and spouting spontaneously about love, religion or politics.”
Attributed
“We have our factory, which is called a stage. We make a product, we colour it, we title it and we ship it out in cans.”
Attributed
“There’s nothing wrong with being a movie star. It’s a very good living if you can get it.”
Attributed
“The most difficult thing in the world is to relate to a woman as an equal, and it took me a very long time.”
Disputed
“I improve on misquotation.”
Attributed
“That’s the way I’ve always been — I’d rather be looked at than listened to.”
Verified
“A lack of artifice. I don’t like a lot of make-up or a lot of perfume. If someone wears a lot of make-up, it shows me that they’re not happy with their features — it shows their insecurity.”
Verified
“Actually, it was Bobby who would do that, and frequently he would put the President on, which was quite a joy for me. Those men were brought up watching our movies, and they felt friendliness toward movie stars of our generation.”
Verified
“An expensive tie is not a luxury — the wrinkles fall out quicker and the knot will hold better.”
Verified
“As a rule, I have tended to avoid these events. I rarely go because I’m terrible at making speeches. The thought of that duty leaves me feeling helpless.”
Verified
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten much more tolerant of my fellow man and I make less demands on people in general. Perhaps I’m more inclined to let Jennifer find her own way than a younger father would be.”
Cary Grant · 1986 · interview · The Dallas Morning News
On becoming a father late in life.
Philip Wuntch, "A Few Words with Cary Grant", The Dallas Morning News, 20 March 1986.
Attributed
“Autographs are ridiculous. When I sign one, it starts off a chain reaction. I’m not able to do anything else for the rest of the day.”
Verified
“Haven’t you ever met a man that could make you happy?”
Captain Cummings · 1933 · film · She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Cummings questions Lady Lou during one of their flirtatious exchanges at her saloon.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Captain Cummings in She Done Him Wrong (1933).
Verified
“How do you know that? How do you know what’s in people’s minds? I don’t know. I just did my job.”
Verified
“How in the world did Eve ever get Adam when she had no other woman to help her with the subtle little touches?”
Dr. Madison Brown · 1948 · film · Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
The paediatrician Madison Brown muses on courtship, unaware that he is the target of Anabel's marriage scheme.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Dr. Madison Brown in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948).
Verified
“I consider faith properly injected into a patient as effective in maintaining life as adrenaline, and a belief in miracles has been the difference between living and dying as often as any surgeon’s scalpel.”
Dr. Noah Praetorius · 1951 · film · People Will Talk (1951)
Praetorius defends his unconventional bedside manner at a hearing into his methods.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Dr. Noah Praetorius in People Will Talk (1951).
Verified
“I don’t approve of, but I like people who think in terms of ideal conditions. They’re the dreamers, poets, tragic figures in this world, but interesting.”
Leopold Dilg · 1942 · film · The Talk of the Town (1942)
Dilg muses on idealists during a fireside debate with Lightcap.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Leopold Dilg in The Talk of the Town (1942).
Attributed
“I don’t care what they’re saying. I’ve developed a skin like a rhino’s.”
Verified
“I don’t even know who my favorite leading lady is. They were all hard-working people whom I basically enjoyed working with.”
Verified
“I don’t know anything about drugs. None of the people I know is involved with drugs. Hollywood is a very hard-working town — you have to get up early, and you have to look good.”
Verified
“I feel delighted and flattered, and I don’t think I deserve it.”
Attributed
“I got tired of getting up at six o’clock and tripping over all those cables and drinking out of Styrofoam cups. It’s not as glamorous as you might think.”
Cary Grant · interview
His wry explanation for leaving pictures in 1966.
Compiled undated on The Ultimate Cary Grant Pages under his retirement from acting; no dated primary publication cited.
Verified
“I had no idea she would become a big star. If she had something different from any other actress, it wasn’t apparent at that time. She just seemed very shy and quiet.”
Verified
“I haven’t the remotest notion. She calls me up every now and then and we talk. I call her my telephone dream girl. It’s practically weird.”
Alec Walker · 1939 · film · In Name Only (1939)
Alec Walker jokes about a mysterious caller early in the melodrama of his unhappy marriage.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Alec Walker in In Name Only (1939).
Verified
“I shall cherish it until I die, because probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues.”
Verified
“I think you’re applauding my stamina.”
Attributed
“I took LSD with the hope it would make me feel better about myself. I wanted to rid myself of all my hypocrisies.”
Verified
“I wouldn’t know what to do in the bathroom all day!”
Sir William Rutland · 1966 · film · Walk, Don't Run (1966)
Sir William complains about the apartment-sharing arrangements forced on him by the Tokyo Olympics housing shortage.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Sir William Rutland in Walk, Don't Run (1966).
Verified
“I’m fascinated now by the economics of the movie business. I’m one of these people who can’t wait to see what will happen with Ted Turner and MGM.”
Verified
“I’m just horrible at making speeches. When I’ve been forced to make a speech, I always have to steal a look at my notes. And then I can never come back to the proper place in my speech. I’m good at Q’s-and-A’s.”
Verified
“I’m often asked for advice or an opinion about clothes, and I always try to answer the best I can, but I’m not inclined to regard myself as an authority on the subject.”
Verified
“I’m reminded of a piece of advice my father gave me regarding shoes: it’s better to buy one good pair of shoes than four cheap ones.”
Verified
“I’m so broke I’m in two halves.”
Ernie Mott · 1944 · film · None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
Ernie Mott, a restless drifter in London's East End, laments his poverty.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Ernie Mott in None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
Verified
“I’m sorry you think more of your diamonds than you do of your soul.”
Captain Cummings · 1933 · film · She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Cummings, posing as a temperance reformer, chides Lady Lou about her priorities.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Captain Cummings in She Done Him Wrong (1933).
Verified
“I’ve never been a joiner or a member of any particular social set, but I’ve been privileged to be a part of Hollywood’s most glorious era.”
Verified
“I’ve worked with Bergman, I’ve worked with Hepburn, I’ve worked with some of the biggest stars, but Grace Kelly was the best actress I’ve ever worked with in my life. That woman had total relaxation, absolute ease — she was totally there.”
Verified
“If I were to go back, I’d like to do something entertaining and amusing, yet unfictional. Something informative that would appeal to both children and grown-ups. And there’s no such thing. It can’t be found.”
Cary Grant · 1981 · press · The Washington Post
Speculating in 1981 about the conditions under which he might return to work.
Gary Arnold, "The Kennedy Center Honors", The Washington Post, 6 December 1981.
Attributed
“If you want to be an actor, my advice is to learn your lines and don’t bump into the other actors.”
Verified
“In all cases, the most reliable style is in the middle of the road — a thoughtful sensible position in any human behavior.”
Verified
“Ingrid was a splendid, splendid performer, but she wasn’t as relaxed in front of the camera as Grace was. She took acting so seriously. But I adored her.”
Verified
“It’s a conspiracy, I tell you. The minute you start they put you on the all-American sucker list. You start out to build a home and wind up in the poorhouse.”
Jim Blandings · 1948 · film · Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Blandings rants about the escalating cost of building his house in Connecticut.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Jim Blandings in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948).
Verified
“Jennifer is studying how to be happy in this life. She’s well-adjusted, she doesn’t smoke or drink, and I think she’s absolutely perfect.”
Cary Grant · 1986 · interview · The Dallas Morning News
On his twenty-year-old daughter.
Philip Wuntch, "A Few Words with Cary Grant", The Dallas Morning News, 20 March 1986, on his daughter Jennifer, then a student at Stanford.
Attributed
“Jennifer is the best production I ever made.”
Cary Grant · interview
On his only child, born in 1966.
Much repeated and entirely consistent with his recorded remarks about his daughter, but no dated primary publication has been established.
Verified
“Little friend of all the world, nobody’s enemy but me own.”
Jimmy Monkley · 1935 · film · Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
Monkley describes his rakish self-image to Sylvia after she taunts him.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Jimmy Monkley in Sylvia Scarlett (1935).
Verified
“My wife objects to drinking. Then she shouldn’t drink. She doesn’t. What’s her objection?”
Verified
“Never give a sucker an even break and always keep an eye on your pals.”
Joe Adams · 1943 · film · Mr. Lucky (1943)
Joe recites his hustler's credo to his partner Crunk early in the picture.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Joe Adams in Mr. Lucky (1943).
Verified
“Not so loud? I always talk loud when I’m mad! You’re lucky I don’t jump up and down!”
Patrick 'Pat' O'Toole · 1942 · film · Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
The radio reporter Pat O'Toole erupts during one of the film's comic confrontations.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Patrick 'Pat' O'Toole in Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942).
Verified
“Oh no, that never happened. I love that story, though. It’s a delightful, witty answer — one of the things that I wish I had said.”
Verified
“Ours is a collaborative medium, we all need each other. That’s how we exist.”
Verified
“People don’t realize how distressing that sort of thing is. I’m sure they don’t or they wouldn’t do it. I get stared at all the time, and it’s annoying.”
Verified
“Professor Elwell, you are the only man I know who can say ‘malignant’ the way other people say ‘Bingo!’”
Dr. Noah Praetorius · 1951 · film · People Will Talk (1951)
Praetorius needles his hostile colleague Elwell over his cold clinical manner.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Dr. Noah Praetorius in People Will Talk (1951).
Verified
“Six feet, one and a half inches — and shrinking.”
Verified
“Stop saying ‘Leopold’ like that, tenderly. It sounds funny. You can’t do it with a name like Leopold.”
Leopold Dilg · 1942 · film · The Talk of the Town (1942)
Dilg jokes with Nora about his own unglamorous first name amid their growing affection.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Leopold Dilg in The Talk of the Town (1942).
Verified
“That film coincided with the birth of my daughter, and I wanted to stay as close to her as possible.”
Cary Grant · 1981 · press · The Washington Post
Explaining that his retirement in 1966 coincided with Jennifer's birth.
Gary Arnold, "The Kennedy Center Honors", The Washington Post, 6 December 1981, on why Walk, Don't Run became his last film.
Verified
“That’s the only way to love a person, otherwise it isn’t worth all the trouble.”
Commander Andy Crewson · 1957 · film · Kiss Them for Me (1957)
The Navy flier Andy Crewson declares himself to Gwinneth Livingston during his wartime leave in San Francisco.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Commander Andy Crewson in Kiss Them for Me (1957).
Verified
“The actors today are so much better than the ones in our day. I’m amazed at what Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson can do. In my day, our work was incredibly confined because we were so hurt by censorship. We weren’t allowed to show any passion.”
Verified
“The deaths of Grace and Ingrid hit me hard. Especially Grace’s because it was so horribly, horribly unexpected. And I think Grace was possibly the finest actress I ever worked with. Forgive me, Ingrid, Kate, Audrey and all the others. But Grace had something extraordinary.”
Attributed
“There’s no point in being unhappy about growing older. Just think of the millions who have been denied the privilege.”
Verified
“There’s too much heavy breathing and shooting going on.”
Verified
“They say money talks — all it’s ever said to me is goodbye.”
Ernie Mott · 1944 · film · None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
Ernie makes a rueful joke about his chronic lack of funds.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Ernie Mott in None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
Verified
“We very rarely have the truth told about us in Hollywood. I’ve had five biographies written about me, for example, and they’re all absolute nonsense. I’ve never even met some of the people I’m supposed to have met.”
Verified
“Well, I did do that, but it seemed like a sensible thing to do. After all, the buttons still were perfectly all right, and I would need them in case the buttons on my good shirts went bad.”
Verified
“Well, it’s a form of self-expression. Some people write books. Some people write music. I make speeches on street corners.”
Leopold Dilg · 1942 · film · The Talk of the Town (1942)
Dilg defends his soapbox politicking to Nora and Lightcap.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Leopold Dilg in The Talk of the Town (1942).
Verified
“Well, surely you don’t mind my holding your hand?”
Captain Cummings · 1933 · film · She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Cummings makes a courtly advance toward Lady Lou, who rebuffs him wryly.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Captain Cummings in She Done Him Wrong (1933).
Verified
“Well, we’ll try three or four — and if that doesn’t work out, we’ll breed poodles.”
Philip Shayne · 1962 · film · That Touch of Mink (1962)
Philip jokes about children when Cathy worries aloud about her fitness to be a mother.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Philip Shayne in That Touch of Mink (1962).
Verified
“What do you think I want to break out of — a bloomin’ pudding? Now go on, get something big.”
Sergeant Archibald Cutter · 1939 · film · Gunga Din (1939)
Cutter mocks the small tools Gunga Din has brought him while planning his escape from a prison cell.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Sergeant Archibald Cutter in Gunga Din (1939).
Verified
“What is the law? It’s a gun pointed at somebody’s head. All depends upon which end of the gun you stand, whether the law is just or not.”
Leopold Dilg · 1942 · film · The Talk of the Town (1942)
The fugitive Dilg argues legal philosophy with the punctilious Professor Lightcap while hiding in his house.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Leopold Dilg in The Talk of the Town (1942).
Attributed
“When I go to see her, the minute I get there I start clearing my throat.”
Verified
“When we were making Notorious, Ingrid could do no wrong as far as Alfred Hitchcock was concerned. He simply adored her. I always went to work whistling when I was working on a Hitchcock film because nothing ever went wrong. Hitch was so incredibly well prepared.”
Verified
“You don’t belong with a grifter like me. You just got some mud on your dress, that’s all. Give it time, let it dry. It’ll brush off.”
Joe Adams · 1943 · film · Mr. Lucky (1943)
The con man Joe Adams warns Captain Steadman away from himself as he begins to change under her influence.
Screen dialogue, spoken by Joe Adams in Mr. Lucky (1943).