The Quotebook
On elegance.
Dress, proportion, and the discipline behind an apparently effortless wardrobe.
Grant wrote about clothing himself, at length, for a fashion annual in 1967. What survives is not advice about labels but a case for restraint: the suit should not be the thing that is seen. These lines are drawn from that essay and from interviews on the same subject.
The lines.
17 quotationsVerified
“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).
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“I suppose you might call me the sophisticated type. I like to act with dialogue. Not with grunts.”
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“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.”
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“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).
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“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).
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“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.
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“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.”
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“My father used to say, let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary.”
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.”
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“An expensive tie is not a luxury — the wrinkles fall out quicker and the knot will hold better.”
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“In all cases, the most reliable style is in the middle of the road — a thoughtful sensible position in any human behavior.”