Cate Blanchett Quotes

You can't be trying to make a film that pleases all people, you know, so it's not a concern of mine.

People had always vaguely mentioned that when you have children, how part of your life would stop. But they don't say that some other extraordinary part of your life opens up.

I think our Western society is very much about, 'Tuck your head in; make sure you're safe. Don't rock the boat.'

Germany is a country that has absolutely had to since the Second World War ask itself massive moral questions. And it's reforged its identity based on culture. I mean, the amount of artists living and working in Berlin is unparalleled. It's one of the strongest economies, not only in Europe, but globally, and it's because of its understanding of the importance of culture.

I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly.

There's an expression in Australia that's called 'Go Bush,' which means to get out of the city and relax. I try and 'go bush' to places where there's no cell reception. But, I don't get to do that often, so for the most part, it's just a state of mind.

I want to be able to follow the example of those extraordinary British actresses who move effortlessly from film to TV to theatre roles.

Those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences - they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.

You learn an enormous lot through failure.

I've been pretty lucky in the leading men department.

My kids don't watch any TV, but they watch videos and films. I'm sure they watch it at friends' houses.

I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth.

Australia is a remarkable country with incredible technical and physical resources and a capacity to be a world leader in renewables.

Before having children, I think I probably approached work very differently, and you become much more economical and pragmatic about your relationship to it.

I think my understanding of different types of love has certainly deepened.

I'm from Australia, where the film industry is potent but small.

I'm the age I am, but my skin is in pretty good condition because I've been consistent with my skincare.

I find that the skills and the muscularity required to be on stage, you need to keep those up - I do, personally, in order to maintain your ability to perform on screen. You don't want to always be working in the one medium.

I don't like to reduce a role to fit me. The challenge to me is to expand to it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But that's the challenge of it.

When you go to a concert, part of being there is that you're all hearing the same thing. It's about being in a crowd. If you go to a gig and there are two people there, then it's not the same thing.

We change people's lives, at the risk of our own. We change countries, governments, history, gravity. After gravity, culture is the thing that holds humanity in place, in an otherwise constantly shifting and, let's face it, tiny outcrop in the middle of an infinity of nowhere.

I remember when I was 26. My father died when I was young and my mother didn't have a lot of money, so I thought, 'I want to own a flat by the time I'm 26.' So I worked towards that, literally trying to scrimp and save. But sometimes those plans don't go as you expect.

I think most beauty tips that work and last are kind of old.

You do get scrutinized in the digital age. You know they're zooming in on every pore, which you've got to forget about.

Look, it's one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I'm vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don't know.

Louise Frogley is a brilliant designer. I always find her wardrobe fittings really informative and creative. Together, you kick images and ideas around.

A film is not a documentary. And what's wonderful about film is that it's a real provocation for people. I never, ever see film as being an absolute version of the truth.

I think there are way too many films made, and I've probably made way too many films.

Armani makes a fantastic lip gloss called 'Beige 100.'

I'm either sitting very still or running very fast.

I've known the panic of financial struggle. I didn't grow up with money at all, and my family has certainly known the panic of, 'Oh, gosh, where's the next bit of money coming from?'

In my career, I thought I've never wanted to get anywhere in particular. I just wanted to work with interesting people on interesting projects.

Women have been doing very, very strange things for centuries. I mean ancient Egyptians were already doing that, but I don't necessarily judge people who do. I don't really think it makes people look better; they just look different.

I often have a few scents depending on if I'm playing a character. The character may be wearing a scent that perhaps I wouldn't wear. We've all got different moods and ways we want to express ourselves; scent is a very powerful way to let people in to your secret life.

I think Pilates is great, especially when you can do it with a trainer who keeps you on track.

There's very little reason in politics these days.

I'm not sure if I want to direct a film, but certainly, as an actress, I'm always thinking, 'Surely this must be my last film.'

No one wants to see me struggling to get a horse under control because I can't ride it. And no one wants to see me not knowing how to deal with the psychological makeup of the character.

I remember thinking, when I was playing Hedda Gabler, that several sequences of the play were utterly absurd.

I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head.Working with Martin Scorsese was an absolute minute-by-minute education without him ever being grandiose about it.

I don't have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You'd be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees - I think a lot of it's imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?

I would have loved to have been an architect - which, actually, would have been a disaster.

I think when you fall in love, whether you're heterosexual, transgender, gay, lesbian, whatever, straight, you feel like it's happening to you for the first time.

Wouldn't it be nice if the internet blew up?

I think you're peripatetic when you work in this industry. My husband and I are assuming the role of co-artistic directors at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008. But as long as the film industry will have me, I will have it.

People assume actors are born liars, but I'd argue the actor's job is to tell the truth. And I've realised I'm not a good liar.

Conservatism is affecting the way women perceive who they are in the world.

Happiness is fleeting - I think that's the main lesson I have learned.

It was fantastic to be able to have my kids on set. Dash, my eldest son, who's not quite five, was into knights and his godmother had given him a plastic Marks & Spencer knights' outfit and [first assistant director] Tommy Gormley said that he could stand to protect me during the scene where Clive [Owen] is talking about the immensity of sitting on the throne. I'm actually looking through an archway at my son standing in his knights' costume protecting me!

I'm a much healthier person through my relationship with my husband. I've become a more fulfilled person - it's a great partnership.

I think probably winning these things [an Oscar] can be a bit of a curse depending on who you are and how you think. But I haven't been on a journey to get anywhere in particular, so that hasn't changed. And my criteria for choosing projects hasn't changed.

I think the terrifying thing is you see all these people who go to the same cosmetic surgeon, and they end up, after a while, looking like everyone.

I was but three when he passed by, but I shall be grateful until the day I die.

You're always more critical of your own country. People will talk about stuff in Britain, and I'll go: 'Aw, it's not that bad,' but at home, it's different. It's inside you.

I suppose the more established one gets, you have what's called a reputation, and so you want to protect that and preserve that. And I think the bravery really comes in one's mid career where you then are constantly trying to move beyond that and move past that, because those so-called successors can become shackles.

I'm not interested in using my father's death as some touch point for why I've become an actor - it's grossly opportunistic.

As an actor, I endeavor to find the reason in the unreasonable. Because no one thinks they are being unreasonable or unrealistic or demanding or behaving madly. We all see ourselves as being justified.

There are certain things in ancient practices that are not worth adhering to.

We've enshrined the purity, sanctity, value, and importance of bringing children into the world, yet we don't discuss death. There used to be an enshrined period where mourning was a necessary part of going through the process of grieving; death wasn't considered morbid or antisocial. But that's totally gone.

People who say, 'There's nothing to fear from spiders' have clearly never been to Australia.

I look at someone's face and I see the work before I see the person. I personally don't think people look better when they do it; they just look different.

I think the atmosphere on set really comes from the material, but also the director.

I believe that a creative career is only as good as the risks that you take with it.

I think if you're going to wear a red lip, you don't want it wearing you, so it's about finding the right colour.

Because the picture is called 'Veronica Guerin,' you expect a biopic. But it's really about the last two years of her life.

See the opportunity in the misstep.

When anyone plays a mother on film, there is a whole raft of judgment in that a mother is a particular archetype or that every mother is the same. That's complete rubbish.

I'm not interested in playing characters who see the world through my prism; I think the journey of understanding any character is to see how they tick and how they differ from you.

I love strange choices. I'm always interested in people who depart from what is expected of them and go into new territory.

You have to surrender less when you see a film than when you go and see something live.

I admire the work of brilliant actresses such as Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren, who have had such varied careers. They have never stopped working, and they are as great today as they ever were.

I can be a real pessimist. You know that when you win an Oscar, and you walk offstage, and your first thought is: 'Oh God, I've peaked.'

I'm always without sleep. I've got two kids. I understand sleep deprivation on a profound level.

Marriage is a risk; I think it's a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit.

The more you can remove the obstacles between you and the world as a woman, the easier and simpler life becomes.

When I emerged from drama school, I had no expectation that I would ever work in film.

When a gift is difficult to give away, it becomes even more rare and precious, somehow gathering a part of the giver to the gift itself.

I'm incredibly fortunate to have met the intelligent, generous, risk-taking, stimulating man to whom I am married. He's really amazing.

I love 'Annie Hall,' but then I adore 'Hannah and Her Sisters.' Dianne Wiest is amazing in 'Bullets Over Broadway,' but her in 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' I absolutely loved it.

No one is ever who they purport to be.

I was quite shocked at the tone I took and the judgements I had of the relationship that she embarked on, you know, sex with a minor. But it's the stuff of great drama [in Notes On A Scandal].

When I was younger, I was actually looking forward to getting older, to have more insight, more understanding.

You know you're a pessimist when you win an Oscar and think, "Oh God, I've peaked.

If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously.

If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state.

I think sometimes when you're working consistently in film, and maybe this is just me, but you do feel quite dislocated from your audience.

The more you do it, the more you learn to concentrate, as a child does, incredibly intensively and then you sort of have to relax. I remember the first film I did, the lead actor would in between scenes be reading a newspaper or sleeping and I'd think, 'How can you do that?'

If you over plan New Year's Eve it's going to be a disaster so you have to be alive to changes.

No, it's very comforting actually, to know that you're sitting in a long legacy of actresses who've played the role. I'm absolutely all for absorbing all of those influences, so you understand the pedigree of the part as much as you understand the figure in history ... because you are playing the part. You don't say: "Gosh, I want to play Peter Sellers ... " because you can sort of do that in your own bathroom.

I think the height of ridiculousness was when I was playing Elizabeth in 'The Golden Age' while preparing to start shooting 'I'm Not There.' I literally finished filming Elizabethan grandeur on Friday, flew to Montreal, and started being Bob Dylan on Monday.

I tend to use really basic creams, and I like to put an oil on, like an emu oil from Australia. It's from the emu, and it's really nourishing. I prefer an oil to a cream.

Inhibition is something I notice in hamstrung actors all the time. They can be wonderful up to a point and then become very self-conscious.

That's definitely true! It was before my father died, so I can't attribute it to an obsession with death. When I was seven, I loved those old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone. The Scarlet Claw was one of my faves. And I loved all the Halloween's and that film about the haunted house ... Burnt Offerings, with Oliver Reed. Every birthday party was a slumber party and we'd watch horror films.

We're constantly morphing into different outward manifestations of ourselves. That's what I find curious about people.

I'm incredibly lucky that my profession allows me to be where I choose, really.

The effect on the geo-cultural political map of Australia made by Gough Whitlam is so vast that wherever you stick the pin in, you get a wealth of Gough's legacy.

I don't think it's more difficult for actors to have a good marriage than anyone. I think, in the end, a really important component of any relationship is honesty, and it also comes down to luck.

Lazy thinking is not creative or productive.

You know, when you see yourself on a big screen, I tend to watch from behind my hands. There is absolutely the regret. You always get that at the end of every project. That's what's great about theater: at least every night you get the chance to go out and re-offend. I'm endlessly disappointed, which is what propels me into the next project, probably, not to repair the damage but to kind of hopefully keep developing. Otherwise there's no reason to keep doing it, is there?

Ageing is something that both men and women are utterly terrified about.