Samantha Morton Quotes

I wanted to make a film - and I've been wanting to do this for 16 years - about life in care, and bring it to the public's attention, because I had never seen anything, on TV or in the cinema, which said: 'This is how it feels to be a kid in care'.

I was physically abused and I retaliated.

I'm an actor. That's what I'm gifted at. It's what makes me breathe.

It's important to have masculine energy around your child.

It's fantastic to strive towards a nice life where you eat nice organic food and your children go to a nice school and you can afford nice clothes and nice perfume and the hypoallergenic make-up. But there's never a day goes by, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, that I don't think about where I'm from.

The thing with me is, if I wake up one morning and I'm not happy working as an actress, I'll stop. It's not something I have to do. It's not a vocation.

I've been in front of a camera since I was a little girl, and that's the medium I understand.

To be honest with you, a lot of directors can be very lazy.

I'll never get a part in a huge action blockbuster.

Catholicism played such a huge part in my life, I would not have survived without my faith.

It's like I understand images and some people understand poetry.

On paper, it looks rough, but I had a great childhood.

I am proud of what I've done.

I will check the internet for at least an hour every morning scanning worldwide news to do with child abuse. So if you're constantly putting yourself in an environment where you're checking up on social economics or homelessness problems, if you keep yourself aware of it, you don't really have a day off.

The more visionary the idea, the more people it leaves behind.

Some directors cast you because they trust you to do the performance - but then they forget to direct you.

I don't get the point in a lot of biopics, they're boring. You know what's gonna happen. You're just watching actors show off.

We're all living blinkered lives, and we're not seeing what's going on and looking to change it. I'm not saying that everyone has to make a political statement, but we need to be more aware of what's happening and why.

My family don't watch a lot of what I do. Films are a bit too arty-farty for them, certainly the ones I do!

I'm not a writer. I think I can write short stories and poetry, but film writing, brilliant film writing, is a talent - you can't just do it like that.

I believe it is my duty as a performer to raise issues in the world of things we're afraid to look at.

For anyone who's been in care, successfully coming through the system is nothing to with money or success; it's the ability to feel love and be loved in return.

It's more important for me to feel content than to be famous.

I think anybody who has been abused as a kid - and I was abused as a kid, by various people - will say it's irrational because violence is irrational.

You've got all these books on self help, getting to know yourself, doing the right thing, eating the so-called right foods, even down to what books you have on your shelves. People are encouraged to look to themselves first as opposed to being a part of society.

I want to prove that you don't have to come from Oxford University or Rada - and you don't have to have parents that support you - to succeed.

It's not about the money with me.