The Quotebook
Wit and deflection.
The deadpan, which was a method and not merely a manner.
A good deal of what is quoted from Grant is a joke doing a job — turning a question aside without appearing to. Collected here as what it is.
The lines.
85 quotationsDisputed
“Judy, Judy, Judy.”
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
“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
“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
“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.”
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 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
“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
“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).
Attributed
“I’ve been called cheap so often I no longer wince at the word.”
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 still want to go on making pictures until I’m dead . . . or longer.”
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
“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.’”
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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 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
“Personally, I regard every knock as a boost.”
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.
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
“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.”
Attributed
“I think that making love is the best form of exercise.”
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
“Old actors never die, they just lose their memory for lines.”
Attributed
“There’s nothing wrong with being a movie star. It’s a very good living if you can get it.”
Disputed
“I improve on misquotation.”
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.”
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 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 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).
Verified
“I don’t even know who my favorite leading lady is. They were all hard-working people whom I basically enjoyed working with.”
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 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 think you’re applauding my stamina.”
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 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.”
Attributed
“If you want to be an actor, my advice is to learn your lines and don’t bump into the other actors.”
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
“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’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).
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
“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).