He had a great sense of humor — real, true wit, was highly intelligent — an avid reader. A total professional who had no patience with self-indulgent actors. His face had everything in it — many lines, smiles, love, wickedness, sensitivity, wisdom. The sight of Spence was always an experience. If it was unexpected, it lifted my spirits, made me feel warm; if the meeting was planned, that day was invariably a better day than the one before.

[…] I might say Spencer always affected me the way the Lincoln Memorial does — except that he was not a monument, too human, too real. But he was larger than life — a special event at all times to me, one of my life’s bonuses. — Lauren Bacall (By Myself and Then Some)

I’ve never yet made a picture with any object in view other than to translate into moving pictures a story, a character, a love affair or a place which appeals to me and I would like to show to others. In a sense it’s a child’s desire, for like a child who finds a new toy, a strange animal or a brightly coloured flower, I want to show my discovery to others. I suppose that quality is what has made me become a film director.

What appealed to me in the idea of Summertime? Loneliness. Why? Because I think that loneliness is in all of us, it is a more common emotion than love, but we speak less about it. We are ashamed of it. We think perhaps that it shows a deficiency in ourselves. That if we were more attractive, more entertaining and less ordinary we would not be lonely.

The film is about a lonely woman who falls in love, and as I know no better remedy for the complaint I hope you will find it sympathetic.

David Lean: A Biography | Kevin Brownlow

(via noyoudontoprah-deactivated20130)

bonaventures:

I would have done anything for him.

— Katharine Hepburn

(via toshiromifunes)

Maybe young women don’t wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case any of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I’ve had four careers and three husbands.

bon-aventures:

31 Days of Tracy :: Day 25

What fascinated her the most about him was his incredible directness and cleaness of spirit. He said and did exactly what he thought. He didn’t play with a role, he lived inside it. His love for her was as deep as hers for him, but it was not as openly and vibrantly expressed in words. He lived his love for her, rather than talked about it; it was as ingrained as his talent, in the very marrow of his bones.

— Charles Higham

babytheleopard:

“Hello, Dexter” (spoken warily). “Hello, George” (spoken disapprovingly). “Hello, Mike” (spoken breathlessly). Only one voice does one hear - only one face does one see. It could never be otherwise.

I was 15, sitting in a 55-cent balcony seat at the Shubert Theater on Broadway when I heard those words and saw the face of Katharine Hepburn live for the first time. It was “The Philadelphia Story.” I knew then that she was different. She is that rare creature, her voice immediately bringing to mind her astonishing face. She is a member of that club of very few actresses who at their sound are totally identifiable. An immediate vision.

-Lauren Bacall

babytheleopard:

“She was loyal - demanding - pure and purely demanding - open - reserved - formally informal - proud - intimidating - exasperating - funny - touching. She was a worker - a riser above everything - passionate in her likes and dislikes - saying what she thought but keeping herself to herself - loving - sentimental - a lover of beauty - of nature. She was there for all who needed her - really needed her and were in need. She was especially, wonderfully, uniquely, one of a kind.” —Lauren Bacall describes Hepburn, who she was friends with for 50 years.

bon-aventures:

Here’s what’s most important about Katharine Hepburn: not her career and not her brilliance and not her talent— it was her profound, unconditional love for Spencer Tracy. That was her greatest achievement. She and Spencer were one of the greatest love affairs in the history of America.

Michael Moriarty [costar in The Glass Menagerie]

(via witzseeker)

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.

stardustmelody:

Listen biddies, don’t worry your pretty little heads-and I do mean little-about Miss Katie. She’ll make it just fine. She knows the combination of the safe. To everybody’s safe. Have you ever noticed something? How every time she gets in to a new scene, no matter where, or on what stage, and she’s wearing a new outfit, every son of a bitch on this lot, from every department, find their way over there-or her way-to stand around and gawk? Why is that? Don’t ask me, but they sure all want to look at her, and watch her, and see what she does. I do it myself. And the grips from the other sets and cutters and messengers and readers. They all find their way and stand around taking her in like out of town visitors. I notice they don’t do it for any of the rest of us. Only for her. So why is that? Don’t ask me. But I claim anybody who can get a routine like that going for them, without trying even, has got to become a big star, and, what’s more, stay a star. She’s news, that’s all. Hot news. All the time.

-Lucille Ball chatting with Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck and other RKO stars over a coffee break about Katharine Hepburn

(via stardustmelodys-deactivated2013)

stardustmelody:

Cold sober I find myself absolutely fascinating.

-Katharine Hepburn

(via stardustmelodys-deactivated2013)

From defeat, I learned you have to know a little bit what you are doing and you are the only person who is to blame in your life, really. You can’t move on saying, ‘Well, I don’t want to go this way. I’m going this way because you’re pushing me.’ Don’t do that. There’s only one person to blame, and that is you.

Pretty-faced no-talents are always around in this business. They don’t last, and they’re not missed, for a new crop comes in and it’s the same asparagus.

stardustmelody:

At the end of Bringing Up Baby she climbs up high on a ladder next to the brontosaurus, to apologize for what has happened. The ladder falls, and she climbs to the back of the brontosaurus, where I’m standing on a platform. She had to get over the brontosaurus. As she moves, the brontosaurus starts to collapse. I told her when and how to let go. I told her to aim for my wrists, an old circus trick. You can’t let go of that kind of grip, whereas if you go for the hands, you’ll slip. She went right for my wrists, and I pulled her up. Kate was marvelously trusting if she thought you knew what you were doing.

-Cary Grant

(via stardustmelodys-deactivated2013)

garbos:

Hepburn and Tracy were nothing if not extraordinary. While preserving their individuality, they united to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts. As Tracy says to Hepburn in Pat and Mike, in a line that could have been written by Tracy himself and that finally tapers off in to infinity, ‘What’s good for you is good for me is good for you…’

— Molly Haskell (From Rape to Reverence: the Treatment of Women in Film)