Halle Berry Quotes

After my divorce, I was struggling to find my own voice. Through reading, I gained my power back.

Actors always have to fight for the good parts. There are so few good roles written for women each year, and when one is written like this every actress in town covets the role.

The fact is that I like thrillers and action movies. But what really fulfills me is getting out of my comfort zone, taking chances.

Women slave for their hair! It's all about how we compare ourselves to other women, how we size ourselves up.

My mother always said to me, 'You're going to have to work harder and have to be better, and you can't take no for an answer'.

I think a smart person today realizes that you have to be part of the art films that are done just for the sake of the art.

It is very hard to separate one's self from a character. Sometimes the people closest to me have to be very understanding.

Facials are my biggest beauty indulgence. Looking good is about having a good base. It's about taking care of your skin.

I believe that you can experience very profound moments of change in life ... I never would have become an actress if I hadn't dropped out of high school. As a teenager, I was so driven to pursue my dreams that I made a decision to quit school at 17 so I could find my voice as an actress and eventually the profession embraced me.

I get offered varied parts, often super sexy roles. But I still think it's an issue to find the good scripts. It's a myth that you win an Oscar and you get more opportunities, and this doesn't just go for me.

Sexuality is part of being a woman, it's part of what empowers us when we're smart enough to know how to use it.

I'm not a fanatic about exercising. For me, it's about moderation and balance.

I've always thought what was I before I was this and then what will I be when I leave here. I really had a hard time always accepting that at some point I'm just going to turn to dust and ashes and never be again and that the journey would stop. I believe that we are souls, kind of like a version of what our movie presents, and we come here again and again until we arrive at our highest evolution, and what happens after that I don't know.

Career is important, but nothing really supersedes my roles as a mother.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at obstacles that inevitably present themselves.

Motherhood sort of puts things into perspective, and it's bout real life, and life is about people, what we give, what we take, what we share.

What's the worst that can happen? If it doesn't do well I can put on my big girl panties, deal with it and move on.

My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.

I know that I will never find my father in any other man who comes into my life, because it is a void in my life that can only be filled by him.

First of all, I'm not pretty. I'm not a world class beauty, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just a guy. I was slow going and stuff like that. I was just never that brand of news.

Throughout my career I have been talked out of things I wanted to do, and when I look back, I think I should have followed my instincts.

I think I've evolved into someone pretty confident - in myself and in my skin.

I love a character that gives me a chance to grow and do something different.

The man for me is the cherry on the pie. But I'm the pie and my pie is good all by itself. Even if I don't have a cherry.

Self-esteem comes from who you have in your life. How you were raised. What you struggled with as a child.

Before you go alter body, do some research and find out how many women have major life-threatening complications from nose jobs. Ask about how many nose jobs gone terribly wrong, and if you thought your face was wrong before, look what happens after. The more we start augmenting our bodies, the more and more we start to look alike, then nobody is special anymore.

I am my best self when I have super-short hair. That's when I feel most like me and most confident.

I don't buy into that pressure to be glamorous all the time. It's impossible, I mean, you get a pimple in the morning, you wake up with bags under your eyes, you see if you can use it in your work, maybe incorporate it into your character.

I always had to diet. I'm diabetic, so it's a lifestyle for me anyway just to stay healthy and not end up in the hospital.

I would say a magical thing happened on when the big 40th birthday came. I felt like a light kind of just went off, and maybe that's because I felt like at 40 I had the right to say and be who I wanted to be, say what I wanted to say, and accept what I didn't want to accept.

2007 began on a high for me because I had the honour of having my name added the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

I take care of myself, because I learned early on that I am the only person in life who's responsible for me.

I think I am at my best when my hair is short. It's easier to take care of and more of who I am. Women are conditioned to think we need long hair.

I don't think I'm unlike a lot of people. I am just someone who is trying to find that mate, and I think it's a really hard thing to do.

Sexiness is a state of mind - a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments.

I'd like to be able to use Storm's powers for good, like have it rain more in Southern California. We could do with it.

My daughter doesn't want to go to school because she knows 'the men' are watching for her. They jump out of the bushes and from behind cars and who knows where else, besieging these children just to get a photo.

Every story about me is so heavy and dramatic. That's not how I do life. But that's the impression people have, and that's what keeps getting reiterated. As if I'm still stuck in all the muck of the past. And I am so not.

I chose a sunflower because when darkness descends they close up to regenerate. But I really wish I'd never had the tattoo in the first place. Clean, clear skin is always better.

I will not marry again. There is no need.

During really difficult times in my life when I start questioning why I am struggling with something, I often turn to books to understand myself better.

What's hardest for me to swallow is when there is a love story, say, with a really high-profile male star and there's no reason I can't play the part. They say, 'Oh, we love Halle, we just don't want to go black with this part.'

I'm not done with love, but I refuse to settle. I am a hopeless romantic. And I won't stop till I get it right.

I used to have to downplay my sexuality because I wanted to be taken so seriously as a thespian and as an artist and as an actor, so I'd play crack heads and down trotting women and disguise myself, and I think as I've gotten older, I become more comfortable with who I really am and all parts of me knowing that my physical self doesn't diminish me in any way or my talent.

I never even think about the physicality of roles, until honestly I get the gig and I think, 'OK, now what do I have to do in this one?' Like, I approach it thinking more about the character
do I respond to it? Is it something I think I can play? Does it seem like it'll be fun?

In a perfect world, I would be a painter. I love working with my hands. I don't get to do it as much as I like, but I am finding a way to make more time as life goes on because it's a really great outlet for me to express myself.

Here's the thing - you can't be careful about what you pick because what looks like on paper is going to be a great script has often turned out to be a disaster, so there's no way to know what's going to work or to pick the right thing.

There have been so many people who have said to me, 'You can't do that,' but I've had an innate belief that they were wrong. Be unwavering and relentless in your approach.

You have to get the audience invested even if you're doing something that they think is dumb, it's kind of what these movies are all about.

Growing older is not such a big deal for me, despite the fears that older actresses have in Hollywood. When I hit 40, for example, I didn't feel 40 - or whatever that is supposed to feel like.

I think we have become obsessed with beauty and personally I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that.

I never wanted to be a model. My modelling career was nothing but a stepping stone to my acting career and that's all I ever saw it as. A pointless rock in the river that has to be stepped on in order to get to the meaningful oasis of acting.

I also have been called that terrible "N" word straight to my face and not known what to do about it because it was just in like 1993 that someone called me that.

While being called beautiful is extremely flattering, I would much rather be noticed for my work as an actress.

I didn't think it was possible at my age honestly. They call it a geriatric pregnancy

I think there's a certain level of trust that I have with women. I've always been honest, even when I haven't had good times in my life or my movie bombed or I've had great success. I've owned up to all of it.

I'm not the girl for superhigh fashion because I don't have the right body.

And you also have to do movies that are about commerce because that's what is required of the industry today.

I think it's always best to be who you are.

I learned up less is more.The makeup used to wear me and now I wear the makeup.

I'm not one of these actresses like, 'Okay, where's the camera? Is it here? Is it here?' I don't even ask the questions because I don't really want to know. I like not performing for a camera but giving it my best every single time whether you're close or whether you're far.

I carried my Oscar to bed with me. My first and only three-way happened that night.

When I was a kid, my mother told me that if you could not be a good loser, then there's no way you could be a good winner.

I have to live for me. I have to do what I need to do for me, and I have stopped concerning myself with what people say.

When an opportunity comes your way, it's about making sure you're prepared to be the one who can walk through the door and deliver the goods. And I've had a lot of luck on my side and I've been prepared for that luck.

In Monster's Ball I went nude, which was scary, but I took the chance and that's how I like to approach my career.

Blackness is a state of mind, and I identify with the black community. Mainly, because I realized, early on, when I walk into a room, people see a black woman, they don't see a white woman. So out of that reason alone, I identify more with the black community.

I'm just going to live my life and be who I am.

I've always liked to go down a different path. Being a woman of color, I never followed a cookie cutter way.

I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper.

I like Doritos. I'm usually watching 'The Biggest Loser' eating Doritos.

I am a hopeless romantic. And I won't stop till I get it right. I don't think I'm unlike a lot of people. I am just someone who is trying to find that mate, and I think it's a really hard thing to do. And I'm not willing to stay somewhere where I am really not happy. And I am not willing to pretend I am for the kid's sake or so that I don't have to go through another public humiliation.

Beauty is not just physical.

I've never been afraid to be who I really am on screen.

The day I saw my mom eating the Santa cookies on the plate was one of the most horrific days of my life.

I no longer scramble blindly through hardship. I no longer emerge from a bad time feeling relieved just to have survived. Instead of despairing, I try to find the lesson within the experience.

I'm done with men ... I'm going to be alone. I have no luck with relationships. I don't think I'm made for marriage.

I meditate and pray all the time. The faith and respect that I have in the power of God in my life is what I've used to keep myself grounded, and it has allowed me to move away from the storms that were in my life.

Let me tell you something - being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.

I've always thought that when anyone receives an award for acting they should always thank their fellow actors, because the only way you're going to deliver your best performance is when you have other good actors on the set supporting you and being very present for you even when the camera is not on them.

I'm learning to accept the lack of privacy as the real downer in my profession.

The first step is clearly defining what it is you're after, because without knowing that, you'll never get it.

Being biracial is sort of like being in a secret society. Most people I know of that mix have a real ability to be in a room with anyone, black or white.

When you grow up in that (multi-ethnic) environment, you see the world differently. Being a mixed-race child, I didn't always see colour in people, I really didn't. It was other people that made me see the colour all the time.

I've learned my tricks. I know what I like. I do not wait around. I initiate. And I'm not all about frequency. I favor intensity.

I've also grown as an actor as I've got older in life. I've learnt how to go to work, immerse myself 100 per cent in the character and, at the end of the day, take it all off and go back, get a nice bubble bath, have a nice massage and realise that is not my life. And that feels good.

By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity.

Just to be true to myself, which is why I did this movie. I figured everyone was going to freak out and say, 'Why would you do that after Dorothy Dandridge?' My answer is 'Because I can.' And that feels really good to be comfortable saying that.

I guess you could say I have bad taste in men. But I no longer feel the need to be someone's wife.

I realize as you age the less makeup you wear the younger you look.

I want to do roles that are fun and challenging and I want to try different things. I don't want to keep doing Monster's Ball over and over and over again. I want to keep doing my career the way that I was doing it before I won the Oscar.

I can't imagine my life without animals. I have two dogs and three cats. Coming home and finding them all lined up at the door waiting for me has got to be one of the sweetest joys of my life.

When a young woman tells me that she wants to become and actor, I say, 'No, be a writer. Or go to business school and learn how to run a studio.' The only real change will come from behind the scenes.

Anytime you put a movie out it's subject to such scrutiny and such criticism.

If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself and I think that's often hard for us to do.

I know that there is a God - the God within me that's always present and will protect me. I'm not afraid to climb any mountain, because I know that I'm protected. Even if I fall and die, I'm still protected. My faith is on that level.

There's a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog.

I'm not afraid of portraying anything on-screen.

I think my feet are my sexiest body part. People I find really sexy include Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and my mum.

Nature has got it all wrong: When you are younger, it should be harder to get pregnant, and as you get older it should be easier. When you are so ready, you can't do it to save your life. And when you are 21, you are so not ready, but you are ripe as could be. The eggs should become more developed the older you get, not die slowly from the day you're born. That's one thing God got wrong.