You can’t change the music of your soul.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

If you lead a public life, people are much more on to you than you think.

Who is Katharine Hepburn? It took me a long time to create that creature.

I've made forty-three pictures. Naturally I'm adorable in all of them.

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.

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.