Angelina Jolie Quotes

We cannot look at Syria, and the evil that has arisen from the ashes of indecision, and think this is not the lowest point in the world's inability to protect and defend the innocent.

I thought I'd become a funeral director when I wasn't going to be an actor.. I thought I would be good at helping some people with the grieving process and with trying to get them to talk about and understand who this person was.

To be in any way a positive contribution, that's all anybody wants to be. It's all I've ever wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist, be a mother. You want to feel that in your life you've been of use, in whatever way that comes out.

Violence against women and lack of intervention and man's inhumanity to man and this kind of atrocities are going on. These are big issues of our times, we must speak about them, we must learn how to better understand how these things happen so we can address them.

Children teach you so much. You take another look at life when you have a child. Everything is new again for you. They ground you.

People will always say all sorts of stuff. Let them. I'm enjoying my life

I suppose I'm very aware of time and of memories and of enjoying life ... not just doing the right thing and being a useful person, which I certainly wanna be and believe that I am. I hold onto my family really tight and try to be as good a woman as I can be in my life.

And they're [Coen brothers] so smart, they're so witty, they have such an extraordinary way of communicating with an audience in a such a clean way - with just a few lines or just a gesture from a character, they say so much.

The most upsetting thing is that the US is a leader in the world, and if they don't sign, then how do you expect to convince Russian and China and Iran, Pakistan, all these other countries, to sign? They simply won't. (The US government) feels it's against their constitutional right to bear arms, or they've said that it's needed in North and South Korea, on the border. I don't think any of these are good enough excuses for the damage.

Violence against women is still treated as a lesser crime. Armed groups turn it into a weapon of choice because of near total impunity.

Every day we choose who we are by how we define ourselves.

I'm a woman, and anytime you tell a woman that she looks nice, it's not going to upset her.

I want to raise my kids, I want to get them through their teenage years ... I do love my work with the UN and with PSVI so if I can do more of that and be more effective I will do whatever I can.

The money it would cost to buy another car could be [used to] build two schools. So it's an easy choice that makes me very happy.

There's people constantly asking you for something on set, so the multi-tasking of motherhood transfers very well to being a director. And I think you're compassionate.

I find flaws attractive. I find scars attractive.

People always slow down for a train wreck. It's like junk food. If you don't feel good about yourself, you want to read crap about other people, like gossip in high school. You don't understand why it's there, but somehow it makes a lot of people feel better.

I didn't even know my bra size until I made a movie.

Family is what grounds you.

Maleficent has suffered abuse in the past, and there's a reason why she is now as furious as she is. And I think that children who have been outcast and abused in any way will relate to her. There's a beautiful side to her; she's not just a dark person. She has all these facets. And that is interesting.

Children should be allowed to express themselves in whatever way they wish without anybody judging them because it is an important part of their growth ... Society always has something to learn when it comes to the way we judge each other, label each other. We have far to go.

Arabs and Mulims are not terrorists.The world should unite against Israel.

I always wanted a great love affair: something that feels big and full, really honest, and enough. No moment should feel slight, false, or a little off. For me, it had to be everything.

I think the global community always has a responsibility to any humanitarian crisis. And I think it's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis because displacement can can lead to a lot of instability and aggression.

A Single journey can change the course of a life.

I think we should try to be responsible and educate ourselves. I'm simply doing that and traveling, learning first hand, and seeing first hand what's going on.

It's probably not an accident that the films that I care about happen to be about issues that matter to me, stories that I want to tell. If you're going to spend two years of your life on something it has to matter to you, you have to be passionate about it.

I'm just glad I was able to return to some of that innocence and beauty I had as a child when I started my own family, and my children brought me back some of that spirit.

I just started reading lots of books and then called the United Nations and asked if they could educate me. The more I got involved, the more I suddenly began to feel useful as a human being and felt like I was finally living as I should be.

If we cannot end the conflict, we have an inescapable moral duty to help refugees and provide legal avenues to safety.

I see myself as mom first. I'm so lucky to have that role in life. The world can like me, hate me or fall apart around me and at least I wake up with my kids and I'm happy.

It was that I had started having sex, and that sex didn't feel like enough, and no emotions were really enough, I didn't feel.... it's like there was always something I wanted to break out of, feel more, be more connected to another person, something more honest... and in kind of a moment of wanting to find something honest, I grabbed a knife, and I cut him and he cut me back, and we had this exchange, and then somehow ...covered in blood and my heart was racing and it was dangerous and life... and... and it suddenly felt more honest than whatever this sex thing was supposed to be, this connection between two people was supposed to be. So I went through a period of when I would feel trapped, I'd cut myself because it felt like I was releasing something, and that it was honest.

I had a desperate need, which I think most artists do, to communicate... to feel that whatever it is inside me, cutting or going crazy or whatever it is I'm feeling,... there's something inside of us, we wanna reach out, we wanna talk to each other, we wanna throw our emotions and our thoughts out and hope that we make some sense or we get an answer... we want to just emote and hope there'll be a response.

I think I'll be working a lot less as I get older

I have men in my life. I have a brother. So Maddox will have male teachers. I was raised without a father.

I'm not somebody that just wants to hold up a white flag and say, 'Let's all just get along.' I think people that do horrible things should be held accountable.

I realized that very young - that a life where you don't live to your full potential, or you don't experiment, or you're afraid, or you hesitate, or there are things you know you should do but you just don't get around to them, is a life that I'd be miserable living, and the only way to feel that I'm on the right path is just to be true to myself, whatever that may be, and that tends to come with stepping out of something that's maybe safe or traditional.

Maleficent was always so elegant. She always was in control. And to play her was difficult. I worked on my voice a lot. She's bigger than me. She's on a different level of performance that I have never done.

I'm looking very much forward to growing older. I want to be an exhausted older woman but with a very full life behind me and one still going.

It doesn't take courage to drink too much and be wild or jump around. That doesn't take any kind of boldness, just riding a motorcycle or whatever the idea of being tough is. Tough is having four kids. Tough is committing to life and being disciplined.

I am the kind of person who doesn't recognize borders. I don't understand why we think it is okay to keep someone within one border when they are unable to feed their family when they could be getting help somewhere else. I don't see people as different so I don't understand the idea of borders in this world.

I'm a very private person. I don't go out much. I'm home with kids. I go to work. I don't really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.

I don't see myself as beautiful, because I can see a lot of flaws. People have really odd opinions. They tell me I'm skinny, as if that's supposed to make me happy.

Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful, and I'm not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are things you get offered that are vulgar and violent - just like there's a side of me that's vulgar and violent.

I love directing, It means so much to me to direct stories about subject matter that I care deeply about. I can act in many things, and you can try to experience different characters, but to direct is years of your life and you have to really love it and believe in it.

I always play women I would date.

I would start drinking something terrible if I were in a situation where I was surrounded by lies or quiet or secrets. It's just not a real life.

I've realized that being happy is a choice.

I'm trying to learn more about international law to understand why we don't have better solutions for conflict - for dictators or aggressors that are hurting or raping children or using them as child soldiers. Why can't we have an international community handle these things in a swift, efficient manner?

When I first went to places where people were suffering from war and persecution, I felt ashamed of my feelings of sadness. I could see more possibilities in my life.

Love should be that person that inspires you to be a better person.

At the end of the day I'm gonna be dead one day, and what people say about me is going what I accomplished and what I did in my life and how my children are. And I don't think it's gonna be what was printed in the tabloids this year.

I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.

It's just such a freeing thing to set these great challenges for yourself, to travel, to learn more about the world, to just go out there and get crazy and get free and get strong.

What decides where we are born and into what kind of life and why?

I think as a human being, as a mother, as someone who works internationally, I needed desperately to know a man like Louis Zamperini in my life, to know that there is hope.

I 've been married so much in my life that I never really had lovers, so it's been a fun time. Hopefully the men are enjoying it as well.

There doesn't need to be a God for me.

I wish I could find people who just would fight me and break through to me and hold me down and scream their life into my face.

Different is good. When someone tells you that you are different, smile and hold your head up and be proud.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it's unbelievable!

There is no greater pillar of stability than a strong, free and educated woman, and there is no more inspiring role model than a man who respects and cherishes women and champions their leadership.

I think that if more people saw more things, they wouldn't be able to really help themselves.

Barefoot or first thing in the morning, I feel beautiful. I didn't always feel that way, but I feel that way now. When somebody loves you, and when you make somebody else happy, when your presence seems to make them happy, you suddenly feel like the most beautiful person in the world.

I used to think I was unstable, because I had this thirst for something. I could never figure out what it was. I couldn't sleep at night, and I always wanted to be somewhere else. I have a window tattooed, this little box, and it's because wherever I was, I wanted to be somewhere else. And, I always saw myself, wherever I was in life, staring out the window.

I always hate speculation on the news, so I don't want to be somebody who speculates.

I approached UNHCR because I believe in what the United Nations. I believe refugees are the most vulnerable people in the world. They are affected by everything, including landmines. They are vulnerable to everything.

Just start off with the same goals in mind. If you have the same values, same goals then you'll be on track for the same future.

I've been reckless, but I'm not a rebel without a cause.

When you have kids it's nice to have a place where they can always return to and some place where they will grow up in, but I never had that. I'm not attached to things and places. I like that we [the family] keep moving. It's a nomadic life, and I think that's a great life. I'm excited when we take our kids to a new country and they don't just immediately look for the comforts of home. They blend into that country. Send them to any place in the world and they won't be scared. They'll just feel like they can make friends there.

Breast cancer alone kills some 458,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. It has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment, whatever their means and background, wherever they live.

When I was growing up, I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn't have parents.

I'm shy to call myself a director still. When someone says, 'What do you do for a living?' I don't know if I've earned that.

I think if you've never been pregnant, you can over play pregnant and you can do a lot of different things with pregnant.

Actors spend a great deal of their time making films. And that doesn't mean that they're not educated. But we haven't gone to law school and we're not experts on policy. We're just people with a platform and an opinion. But that should never be enough, in my opinion, to be political.

I didn't really want to live, so anything that was an investment in time made me angry ... but also I just felt sad. When the hopelessness is hurting you, it's the fixtures and fittings that finish you off.

I've had a wonderful career and I'm very happy to have had all of the opportunities that I've had to tell stories and work for as long as I have. I'm sure there'll be a few more films but I'm happy that I'm able to be selective.

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

What's going to be funny is when they think Mom and Dad are a little bit cool, because right now, we're not cool Mom and Dad.

People wonder aloud about whether I am an okay mother. That is obviously painful because it's so important to me. It's hard to hear that people think I'm not a capable mother and a good person, that they just think I'm nuts.

I'd go from film to film and almost detach from one world and jump in another. I was living as these people and not having a self. I didn't know who I was. And things just get really dark.

Films that I want to do are few and far between.

For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options. I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices.

I'd love to have a great relationship with my father. And unfortunately ... I don't.

For anybody that works in any kind of demining or any kind of humanitarian aid work, there is danger and it's always a high-risk area [in Cambodia].

If you can imagine the area and the land in Cambodia, I mean there are hardly any roads in big parts of the country. The roads they have, in the rainy season, become just mud. So, if you're somebody that has just one leg, or blind with no arms and you have children and you're trying to work, and earn some money, and take care of your home, it's hard enough to be a parent and do all of that normally.

I was the punk outsider who nobody messed with. I was fearless. At 16, I graduated and moved out.

Anything that feels good couldn't possibly be bad.

It makes me feel like a woman. It makes me feel that all the things about my body are suddenly there for a reason. It makes you feel round and supple, and to have a little life inside you is amazing.

Figure out who you are separate from your family, and the man or woman you're in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that's the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self because with that, you can do anything else.

After my last divorce, I said I was absolutely going to marry somebody in another field, an aid worker or something. Then I met Brad, everything I wasn't looking for, but the best man, the best father I could possibly wish for, you know? I don't see him as an actor. I see him very much as a dad, as somebody who loves travel and architecture more than being in movies.

When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire.

If anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I've no problem shooting them,

I think actors, because we're in the world of the characters and the movie, are more isolated, and it always really fun to wake up and be a family with the entire crew.

I'm a fairy. I'd come and hear, "How was your day, honey?" And I'd be like, "I was a fairy. I don't know."

The moment you have a child, in an instant your life is not for you, and your life is completely, 100 percent dedicated to another human being, and they will always come first. It changes you forever. It changes your perspective, and it gives you a nice purpose and focus.

I do believe in the old saying 'What does not kill you makes you stronger.' Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

I don't do things that are comedic. This is such a crazy idea.

No, no, no, I've just grown up too much to be hurt by what people's opinion of my love life is.

I think it's easier to play when you do have a balanced home. I think if I did have alcoholism in my personal life, or my mother, or somebody close to me, it might have been much more uncomfortable to get in there.

Our family may seem extraordinary in some magazines or something, but at home it's not. We're really just a very loving family. We're very close, and we don't read magazines. We just kind of go to work and come home. We try to keep a sense of reality into their lives. What's truly real, not Hollywood real.