Salma Hayek Quotes

My driving abilities from Mexico have helped me get through Hollywood.

I directed a movie and now, I'm going to do the editing.

I always look forward to seeing a man who has more brains than me.

I grew up in Mexico, not the U.S., and the fact is that there just aren't any parts for Latin actresses. I have to persuade people that my accent won't be a problem, but an asset.

I think if you are young and you have children, you still have so much to prove. When you have children later in life, you lose a bit of that urge for working.

I believe eating well, and with people you love, is about feeding your body, heart, and soul - I used juicing to ensure I covered my nutritional bases every day, and as a tool to restore inner balance if my body needed a break from too much indulgence.

If you're paralyzing your face in your 20s and 30s, you're not exercising the muscles that give it strength. My feeling is, laugh, cry, move your face.

Every woman who thinks she is the only victim of violence has to know that there are many more.

I love to cook when I have the time. I don't cook French or Mexican food with exact recipes. I just go to the supermarket and buy things that look good, and I mix it all together and invent something. Ninety-five percent of the time, I'm lucky. Sometimes not so lucky, and I say, 'Let's go out to dinner.'

I'm good at working, but I'm very good at playing.

I became obsessed with all these women who die never feeling they did anything extraordinary with their lives.

My English was limited to vacationing and not really engaging with Americans. I knew 'shopping' and 'eating' English - I could say 'blue sweater,' 'creme brulee,' and 'Caesar salad,' - so I came here thinking I spoke English.

Botox, trust me I've been tempted - but I resist! Think about what happens to your muscles - and your skin - if you're sick and don't move for a few days. It all atrophies! Plus, if you freeze a muscle in your face, other muscles have to compensate! And once you stop, what does that look like?

You have to understand that motherhood has to be your priority. It's important work.

At one point in my life, I was very involved with social causes. I'm still involved, but now I have a family and it's important to me.

There is an Arabic writer who wrote philosophy and poetry and who brought all religions and all the world together.

I think that a lot of women that know they're going to be part of history somehow decide to have a character to be remembered by.

Love food and I love to eat.

I have never denied my background or my culture. I have taught my child to embrace her Mexican heritage, to love my first language, Spanish, to learn about Mexican history, music, folk art, food, and even the Mexican candy I grew up with.

People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.

People say we're all identical, but Jennifer Lopez is an American. She's from New York. She doesn't have an accent. Some of these Latin people - their Spanish is pathetic. They learned it when they became famous as Latinos.

I like to eat. I'm always on the edge of how much can I eat without looking too - you know. If I eat something salty, it makes me want something sweet. I eat something sweet, then I want salty. And exercise is not my thing, though I do it.

If a man lets all of my dogs sleep in the bed with us, then that is the most romantic thing. You must love my dogs in order to love me. A man who is nice to my animals and doesn't shoo them away - well, that's the height of romance.

Before I had my child, animals were my life. I slept with four dogs in my bed.

What works in a relationship of very public people is not making the relationship public - keeping it as personal as it can be. It's the only way it is real.

When I'm doing a movie, that's when I relax. As stressful as it can be, as much pressure as it should be, making movies is still the place where I feel the most at ease and I truly enjoy it. That's why I make so many.

They offered me that film before I did Frida and I said, no, I'm not capable of directing. Then after seeing Julie direct, I was inspired by it. She motivated me to do it, because we don't have role models as woman for directors.

If I go on a diet and work out, I'm always in a bad mood. I'd rather be a little heavier but nice.

It doesnt matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith.

Before you do anything, think. If you do something to try and impress someone, to be loved, accepted or even to get someone's attention, stop and think. So many people are busy trying to create an image, they die in the process.

Some men have a silly theory about beautiful women - that somewhere along the line they'll turn into a monster. That movie gave them a chance to watch it happen.

And I highly recommend for all the women in the world, even if they're 71, you can never take for granted that he loves you. It's always good to flirt with him. It's a great sport.

Beauty products always cheer me up and give me hope. If it makes you feel pretty, why not?

How I would describe my characters is absolutely different from how I would describe myself.

I don't want to be size zero and I'm glad I'm not.

Producing is hell, writing is frustrating, acting is really satisfying, directing is heaven.

They thought I was crazy in Mexico when I said, 'I'm going to Hollywood.' Nobody thought I could make it.

No woman has to be a victim of physical abuse. Women have to feel like they are not alone.

I think if I was not in love, I would probably let myself go faster. Love gives me the vanity to continue.

Sometimes I decide not to make something because I am proud and think I am better than that - and then I realise I have to pay the rent and I have to take something which is even worse than all the other stuff they offer you because you were being so proud not to take it! But you adjust and sometimes for one reason or another there is no strategy at the end but there is the ability to do the best that you can with what you have.

I have a ranch, which is my favorite place in the world.

Every unwanted animal ends up on my farm: alpacas and horses and dogs and cats and chickens and ducks and parrots and fish and guinea pigs.

My grandmother was energetic and fearless - a talented poet and songwriter. She was also interested in chemistry and history and medicine, taking care of the people in her hacienda in Mexico, delivering babies. She could have become anything, but this was the 1930s, and she was forced into an arranged marriage.

I'm concerned about my daughter because she will not believe in Santa Claus. No matter what I say to her, she just doesn't buy it, and she's 2. I refuse to give it up. I say, 'There is a Santa Claus,' and she says, 'Okay, Mommy. In pretend world, right?' She really doesn't believe.

I don't think we are the same, women and men. We're different. But I don't think we are less than men. There are more women than men in the world - ask any single woman! So, it is shocking that men are in more positions of power.

There has never been a female director who has won an Oscar. There has only been one woman who won at the Cannes Film Festival.

I've stolen a couple of hearts and they are in my private collection!

You want to do movies that your children can watch, and that your children can have fun at and enjoy the experience of shooting.

I really do love Diana Ross; I grew up listening to her records. I grew up in a little town in Mexico, so while we got the music, we never got the experience of watching her.

For me, I have to say that I like to work a lot too, but I like not working better. The perfect scenario is when you just worked and you know something's coming up, then you have four, five, six months off. But you know you're going to have a job later.

When it is important for you to say something and you find a vehicle to say it, then go for it. It is so rare when that happens so I think every minute spent fighting for it is always worth it. Even if nothing ends up happening, it's still worth the fight.

It's more fun to play a good character with a good director and good actors around you. That's what makes it fun, and the more variety, the better.

No surgical tweaks. No Botox either. I think it is terrible, these girls in their late 20s injecting their faces and lips. One told me, If I kill my muscles now, I'll never get wrinkles. Can you imagine?

I have a small house so I borrow everything except art, that's what I love.

I'm a bit of an abstract figure that people can project their fantasies on; it's pretty much what we all are, otherwise we wouldn't be stars, and people wouldn't be interested. But people project things on you that have nothing to do with what you really are, or they see a little something and then exaggerate it. And you can't really control that.

I said, 'I'm going to the United States to study with Stella Adler and do movies because nobody here has done it and my passion is films.' But I came here and I didn't speak English, I didn't have a green card, I didn't know I had to have an agent, I couldn't drive, I was dyslexic.

I love family films. Of course, as a mother who has to watch so many movies, you really appreciate it when somebody makes a film that is for everybody - family entertainment that's really for the family, where everyone has a good time.

Leave it to the Catholics to destroy existence.

It sounds trite to go after men who are nice but when you've been hurt a lot it becomes appealing.

For my wrap present, Colin Farrell gave me a first edition book. I got so involved with this character and I was so sad when the movie was over that when I got home and I tried to read the book I got really emotional and I started crying.

I just love life. I'm excited about things in life. I think that if you're excited about life, you are excited about waking up and doing things with your life every day.

I'm suspicious of people who talk about their feelings to the whole world

I am so, so lucky. I am the luckiest girl in the world, really. And still with access to everything I could possibly want I still say 'Oh dear, what am I going to wear today?' There's no ending to that question!

If you love food and you love red wine and they put you in France, you're in a good place and you're in a bad place at the same time. You have to weigh yourself every day, and you have to have an alarm number. When you get to that number, you have to start putting it in reverse.

Make yourself smell nice. I even wear perfume sometimes when I'm alone.

What worries me the most is that most men are so weak. Because of that they act like they don't care and like machos - because they are too fragile inside. They're scared of confrontation and afraid of so many things.

I'm not a skinny girl. I push it. I'm at the limit of chubbiness at all times, but I'm happy at all times.

There is a subconscious way of taking violence as a way of expression, as a normality, and it has a lot of effects in the youth in the way they absorb education and what they hope to get out of life.

I have a farm and I love it there. There's really nothing to do, but even watching the chickens, its fun.

It's very easy to feel someone's pain when you love them.

I've never had anything done on my face. I've never had dermabrasion or peels or injections of any kind, nothing.

I can learn my lines fine. It's just reading them in the first place that is the problem.

Everybody has a weakness. Mine is food.

I'll tell you, there is nothing better in life than being a late bloomer. I believe that success can happen at any time and at any age.

This is not love. It is a crime ... You can't look the other way just because you have not experienced domestic violence with your own flesh.

I think it's not a femme fatale when someone is not doing it to manipulate men or be like a black widow. She loves him. She does it out of love. She wants him so badly to stay with her.

Don't try to dress like me or wear your hair like mine. Find your own style.

I think it's nice for women to try to be sexy for their man.

Sometimes when we try to get outside of ourselves, to be like someone else, you miss out on so many beautiful things that you don't know that you are because you're looking at someone else.

Art and activism seem to go together naturally, the idea being that if you're an entertainer, you can have a voice, and if you have a voice, you can make a difference. But if I were not an actress, I would still try to extend myself beyond my little micro-universe of my job, family and personal joy.

You know how macho boys get when they're all together? Well, the set of 'Desperado' was like that. They were all trying to put me down, saying, 'Bring on the stuntwoman, Salma can't do that.' But I did everything.

Sometimes evolving doesn't mean transforming; sometimes it just means owning what is there.

You can have a spiritual awakening and discover a new side of you at any age. And best of all, love can happen at any age. Life can just start to get exciting when you're in your 40s and 50s. You have to believe that.

I like being a mother. For some people, it's so much work that it can be a burden. But it's not for me, maybe because I had my daughter, Valentina, later on in life, at 41.

Find your own style. Don't spend your savings trying to be someone else. You're not more important, smarter, or prettier because you wear a designer dress.

I might not be famous one day. But I'd still be happy.

I think being able to be malleable is a great weapon and I'm a very, very good strategist. I create the most amazing strategies in my head and I have created the most extraordinary strategies in my head for my career ...

When I started acting, I was told over and over again, 'You're no good.' But I said to myself, 'You've got to keep it up.'

People always underestimate me. But if you stick around long enough, act out of conviction, and try to be honorable in everything you do, good things will come to you.

Try to figure out who you really are and not who you want other people to think you are.

I was privileged to grow up in Mexico at a time when you could play in the streets. We lived not too far from the ocean, and we would be outside all the time with the neighbours' kids, running free. What better place could there be for a child?

I don't have stamina in exercise ... but I have it in life.

The truth is, I just don't have the drive to be the prettiest and the thinnest. I can be happy for other people for their beauty.

If it wasn't because of my high heels, I would still be in Coatzacoalcos with 10 children.

I love to cook for my husband and daughter. I enjoy going to the market for fresh vegetables.

There's a lot about the character. It doesn't always happen, but there are some characters you really create a relationship with, almost as if they were your friend. And you never get into their heads again or think like them.

Life is tough; and if you have the ability to laugh at it, you have the ability to enjoy it.

I don't see women and think of them as competition or with judgment. Women really move me. I feel connected to all kinds of women. I am angry because I think we've been mistreated throughout history in different countries, including America. I admire women.

I think I'm very good at adjusting to anything and to any situation, and if you are good at being in the moment and adjusting, you can actually have a clear vision of what to do with things or how to do things.

I love being a wife and homemaker - because it's my choice. My husband doesn't expect me to do it. I don't mind doing things for him because he does so much for me; we both feel that way so there is no power struggle.