Helen Hayes quotes

If you rest, you rust. (Helen Hayes)
Age is not important unless you're a cheese. View quote
Helen Hayes
People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach retirement age seem very admirable to me. View quote
Helen Hayes
From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings. View quote
Helen Hayes
Stardom can be a gilded slavery. View quote
Helen Hayes
Actors cannot choose the manner in which they are born. Consequently, it is the one gesture in their lives completely devoid of self-consciousness. View quote
Helen Hayes
The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life. View quote
Helen Hayes
One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it. View quote
Helen Hayes
Actors work and slave and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end. View quote
Helen Hayes
The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity - love. And the story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity. View quote
Helen Hayes
Childhood is a short season. (Helen Hayes)
An actress always knows when she's hit it and mostly you haven't but once or twice I think I hit it right, so maybe that's good enough for one life. View quote
Helen Hayes
The old-fashioned idea that the simple piling up of experiences, one on top of another, can make you an artist, is, of course, so much rubbish. If acting were just a matter of experience, then any busy harlot could make Garbo's Camille pale. View quote
Helen Hayes
Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it. View quote
Helen Hayes
The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy. View quote
Helen Hayes
Egocentrics are attracted to the inept. It gives them one more excuse for patting themselves on the back. View quote
Helen Hayes
Only the poet can look beyond the detail and see the whole picture. View quote
Helen Hayes
The theatre demanded of its members stamina, good digestion, the ability to adjust, and a strong sense of humor. There was no discomfort an actor didn't learn to endure. To survive, we had to be horses and we were. View quote
Helen Hayes
Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch Life from the side lines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity. View quote
Helen Hayes
The good die young - but not always. The wicked prevail - but not consistently. I am confused by life, and I feel safe within the confines of the theatre. O'Neil's dramas are slapstick farces, Albee's riddles are simple explanations, Pinter's threatening and threatened anti-heroes are innocent babes - next to life and the living. I cry out for order and find it only in art. View quote
Helen Hayes
The expert at anything was once a beginner. (Helen Hayes)
We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too. View quote
Helen Hayes
Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does. View quote
Helen Hayes
When traveling with someone, take large does of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee. View quote
Helen Hayes
Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up... a lot of people don't have the courage to do it. View quote
Helen Hayes