Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly (12 November 1929 – 14 September 1982) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She became princess consort of Monaco in 1956 when she married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. Thereafter, she was commonly referred to as Princess Grace.

Grace Kelly in a publicity still for MGM

Quotes

• Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere important without my own favorite Hermès black bag... I have my jewelry with me in case something happens and I suddenly have to dress up. For me, going out without that purse would seem almost like going out naked. Well, almost.
  • Kelly (1954) attributed to her in: Charlotte Chandler (2005) It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock: A Personal Biography. p. 212 : Kelly had mentioned this to Hitchcock during the preparations of the movie Rear Window.

• I certainly don't think of my life as a fairy tale.
  • Kelly (1956) as cited in Editors of People Magazine (2007) The Royals: Their Lives, Loves and Secrets. p. 62

• For a woman, forty is torture, the end. I think turning forty is miserable.
  • Kelly (1969) in interview with William B. Arthur. Cited in: James Spada (1988) Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess. p. 280

• To create harmony in the home is the woman's right and duty.
  • Attributed to Kelly in: Tom Tierney (1986) Grace Kelly: paper dolls in full color. p. 17

• The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.
  • Attributed to Kelly in: Robert Andrews Ed. (1987) The Routledge dictionary of quotations. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Books. p. 209

• Women's natural role is to be a pillar of the family.
  • Attributed to Kelly in: Paula Munier (2004) On Being Blonde: Wit And Wisdom From The World's Most Infamous Blondes. p. 78

• The frantic life of today has swept up women to the point where... they feel that there is no time for this vital natural function.(breastfeeding) I have many duties and obligations of state along with my husband, but my family comes first.
  • The Milwaukee Sentinel Princess Puts Motherhood First Jul 17, 1971

• (when children can watch without embarrassment their mothers breast feed brothers and sister) They realize the wholesomeness of sex and its naturalness. They don't put sex in the wrong proportion.
  • The Milwaukee Sentinel Princess Puts Motherhood First Jul 17, 1971

• I love walking in the woods, on the trails, along the beaches. I love being part of nature. I love walking alone. It is therapy. One needs to be alone, to recharge one's batteries.
  • The Milwaukee Sentinel Princess Grace finds relaxation in her gardens Jan. 1, 1981

• I was terribly shy when I was young, I was so bland, they kept having to introduce me again and again before people noticed me.
  • Princess Grace, on her childhood

• I was very lucky in my career and I loved it. But I don’t think I was accomplished enough as an actor to be remembered particularly. No, I’d like to be remembered as a decent human being, and a caring one.
  • Interview with Pierre Salinger, June 22, 1982

About Grace Kelly

• A brunette Grace Kelly with Grable's legs.
  • Dan Dailey, on his Hotel Sahara dance partner Camille Williams; as quoted in "Hollywood Today!" by Erskine Johnson, The Salinas Californian (February 25, 1960), p. 7

• Grace Kelly's apparent frigidity was like a mountain covered with snow, but that mountain was a volcano.
  • Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s, cited in: Michael Johns (2004) Moment of Grace: The American City in the 1950s. p. 24

• I didn't discover Grace, but I saved her from a fate worse than death. I prevented her from being eternally cast as a cold woman.
  • Alfred Hitchcock cited in: William Shurtleff, Lawton L. Shurtleff (2005) The Shurtleff and Lawton families: genealogy and history. p. 450

• In her teen years, she was nothing but a giggly somebody with a high nasal voice. She always has had trouble with her nose, and in her childhood winters she had been the victim of one long sustained cold in the head. That gave her the peculiar voice. Her enjoyment of food gave her a little extra weight. And, like her father, an athlete and entrepreneur, she was nearsighted, which made it necessary for her to wear glasses. All in all, she was nobody’s Princess Charming in those days.
  • Margaret Kelly, her mother, cited in James Spada's Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess (1987).

• I could have married her!
  • Senator John F. Kennedy in 1956, looking at press coverage of Grace Kelly's wedding. Recounted by Gore Vidal and cited in Sarah Bradford's America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (2001).

• Writing about her is like trying to wrap up 115 pounds of smoke.
  • Pete Martin, journalist, as quoted in The Filmgoer's Book of Quotes (1978) by Leslie Halliwell, p. 257

• The first time I met Grace Kelly and saw what a beautiful girl she was and how photogenic – that was an important point. She came to make the film To Catch a Thief with Hitchcock. I saw straightaway that she was very photogenic and a beautifully kind lady. That’s what made all the men fascinated by her. She had this very feminine attitude.
  • Edward Quinn, celebrity photographer

• Grace Kelly has always been my absolute idol. When she’s on camera I just can’t tear my eyes away; same with Marilyn Monroe. You can’t take your eyes off them. They have so much poise and they’re so composed and graceful and elegant and chic. But then they can do this physical comedy and in a split second, they can have you in hysterics.
  • Margot Robbie in an interview with The Violet Files

• Off-camera, she reminded me of a small-town high school teacher. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her face was scrubbed clean except for a little dash of lipstick, and she wore glasses. She seemed very likable to me - and very shy. But as we became friends, I saw that along with her determination to succeed as an actress, she had a certain inner calm. She accepted the world as it really was, not as she wanted it to be. I remember thinking that this was something unique in someone so young.
  • Rita Gam, citied in High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, written by Donald Spoto.

• Grace was very sweet. Without makeup, you wouldn't know it was Grace Kelly. She wore glasses, and she was very unassuming, very much a lady, very quiet.
  • Georgine Darcy, cited in It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography, written by Charlotte Chandler.

• You know, I just love Grace Kelly. Not because she was a princess, not because she was an actress, not because she was my friend, but because she was just about the nicest lady I ever met. Grace brought into my life as she brought into yours, a soft, warm light every time I saw her, and every time I saw her was a holiday of its own. No question, I’ll miss her, we’ll all miss her, God bless you, Princess Grace.
  • James Stewart, giving the eulogy at Grace's funeral.

• My life and the lives of so many have never been the same since this wonderful woman entered my world. I adore her more today than ever before. She is my Princess, and I salute her.
  • Prince Rainier on his wife, as cited in Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace.

• To hear her voice, to see the tenderness in her eyes, is to know but a hint of her radiant beauty, enormous generosity, and the greatness of her soul. Behind her regality lay an extremely sensitive woman and a deeply loving mother whose sense of art and beauty engaged her in a permanent quest for perfection.
  • Prince Albert of Monaco, her eldest son and sovereign Prince of Monaco.

External links

• Grace Kelly on IMDb