Audrey Hepburn Quotes

“The war,’ she said once, ‘left me with a deep knowledge of human suffering which I expect many other young people never know about. The things I saw during the occupation made me very realistic about life, and I’ve been that way ever since. Don’t,’ she added, ‘discount anything awful you hear or read about the Nazis. It’s worse than you could ever imagine. I came out of the war thankful to be alive, aware that human relationships are the most important thing of all, far more than wealth, food, luxury, careers, or anything you can mention.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“When asked about the ‘old’ Audrey Hepburn, the actress grew thoughtful. ‘I’ve often been depressed and deeply disappointed in myself,’ she confessed. ‘I hated myself at certain periods. I was too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly. I couldn’t seem to handle any of my problems or cope with people I met. If you want to get psychological, you can say my determination and “definiteness” stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I found the only way to get the better of them was by putting my foot down, by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“My philosophy is this: Do not live for the day – that would be materialistic – but treasure the day. Most of us live on the skin, on the surface, without realising how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“The only occasion on film when a profanity passed from her lips, in fact, came in Two for the Road, when she twice accused Albert Finney of being a bastard. Its impact was all the greater because it was completely at odds with the ‘decent’ Audrey Hepburn image.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“Moon River’ was written to explain that Audrey/Holly was really a yearning country girl; it becomes an anachronism, therefore, to have it sung by a male singer, although Danny Williams’s version later became a top-of-the-hit-parade best-seller. It was Audrey’s rendition of the song, in fact, which first convinced many critics that they were dealing with no ordinary talent. The cigarette-girl extra in the British quickie had reached the Olympian heights and become a Hollywood superstar; most agreed that it would have been hard to think of any other actress who could have suggested as convincingly as Audrey did the desperate frailty beneath Holly’s smart façade.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“After a rainstorm on a brilliant Sunday morning, 17 January 1960, at Lucerne’s Municipal Maternity Clinic, Audrey gave birth to a sturdy, well-made son. He weighed nine and a half pounds, and they called him Sean. The Christian name was chosen because it was the Irish version of Audrey’s half-brother’s name, Ian, and because it meant ‘Gift of God’, the significance of which was not lost on all who knew the baby’s mother.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“Her depression finally lifted, observed friends and colleagues, soon after some scenes were filmed in a leper colony, and following a visit to a mental institution. So she was childless, she mused, but how could that compare to the misery that these people were enduring? ‘After looking inside an insane asylum, visiting a leper colony, talking to missionary workers, and watching operations, I felt very enriched,’ said Audrey. ‘I developed a new kind of inner peacefulness. A calmness. Things that once seemed so important weren’t important any longer.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“Movie composer Henry Mancini, stimulated by Audrey to write ‘Moon River’ and ‘Charade’ and ‘Two for the Road’, always maintained that if you listened carefully to these three songs you could almost determine who inspired them. They were all imbued, he said, with Audrey’s inimitable wistfulness – ‘a kind of slight sadness’.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“With a score that included such imperishable tunes as ‘S’Wonderful’, ‘He Loves and She Loves’, ‘Bonjour Paris!’, ‘Clap Yo’ Hands’, ‘Let’s Kiss and Make Up’, and the title song, ‘Funny Face’, it was a musical which really sang. And, in ‘How Long Has This Been Going On?’, Audrey’s glorious rendition made this classic ballad uniquely intimate, lyrical and affecting. Here, as in her other numbers, Audrey staked her claim to be considered the most entrancing ‘non-singer’ in the history of the art.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“I don’t think your insecurity ever disappears. Sometimes I think the more successful you become the less secure you feel. This is kind of frightening, really.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“The Paris couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, who sketched all Audrey’s dresses for Funny Face and who designed her personal wardrobe, called her ‘the perfect model’.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“It’s just as well that bicycles don’t suffer from inferiority complexes!’ cracked Audrey.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“Who wants a ciggy?”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“The ballet student would also leave with a new name. Henceforth she would be known as – Audrey Hepburn.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“At times like this,’ she would say, ‘you learn about death, privation, danger, which makes you appreciate safety and how quickly it can change. You learn to be serious about what counts.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“Their first and only child was born on 4 May 1929, on John’s fine old estate near Brussels. Edda Kathleen Hepburn van Heemstra, a long baby with the prettiest, ‘laughing’ eyes, came into the world at a time of grave economic and political unrest. The impending slump of 1929, with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange, would shake the financial structure of the whole world to its foundations. No continent would escape the catastrophe, but in Europe its consequences would be tragic. The slump would sweep through Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany like a hurricane, leaving wreckage and despair in its wake.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen

“It is too much to hope that I shall keep up my success. I don’t ask for that. All I shall do is my best – and hope.”
― Ian Woodward, Audrey Hepburn: Fair Lady of the Screen