Helen Hayes quotes

Helen Hayes was an American actress widely regarded as the "First Lady of American Theatre." Her career spanned nearly 80 years, earning her an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and lasting influence in film, television, and stage. She became a celebrated figure for her remarkable talent, dedication, and contribution to the performing arts. Here are 43 of her quotes:

Age is not important unless you're a cheese.

Helen Hayes

People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach retirement age seem very admirable to me.

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.

Helen Hayes

Stardom can be a gilded slavery.

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.

Helen Hayes

The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life.

Helen Hayes

One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it.

Helen Hayes

Actors work and slave and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Helen Hayes

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.

Helen Hayes

Egocentrics are attracted to the inept. It gives them one more excuse for patting themselves on the back.

Helen Hayes

Only the poet can look beyond the detail and see the whole picture.

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.

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.

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.

Helen Hayes

We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.

Helen Hayes

Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does.

Helen Hayes

When traveling with someone, take large does of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee.

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.

Helen Hayes