“Acting means living, it’s all I do and all I’m good at. If I weren’t getting paid well, I would still be acting in a small troupe somewhere.”

Reading one book a day to your child can change the trajectory of their future.

I’m not intimidated by lead roles. I’m better in them. I don’t feel pressure. I feel released at times like that. That’s what I’m born to do.

As long as you feel like a victim, you are one.

In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way.

We humans are more concerned with having than with being.

I was an imaginative child and learning to read was like unlocking another dimension in my mind.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don’t get it, I can’t do it.

You can’t take credit for talent; you can only take credit for using it.

“Invictus” was more a parable in terms of what is possible in life.

Studies have shown kids have a greater chance for lifelong success if they know how to read by the third grade.

You are never too old to have a revelation.

There is tangible fear in the unknown, but we can all do our part and take steps to help.

I’ve learned that with all the advantages that come with being a grown up comes responsibility. Responsibility to be true to yourself, responsibility to honor those who came before you and responsibility to those who will come after you.

Write something insightful. Say Morgan Freeman said it. Win at internet.

Audiences believe what you believe. It’s a matter of believing yourself. If I believe me, then you’ve got no choice. None at all.

So if I believe in God, and I do, it’s because I think I’m God.

I can act. I’ve been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don’t nobody owe you nothing. You’ve go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don’t go from M to Z.

If love is truly a verb, if help is a verb, if forgiveness is a verb, if kindness is a verb, then you can do something about it.

Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors, I think it is for the travel, the time away, and any trouble you get into through being well known. It’s not for the acting, that’s for sure.

There aren’t many downsides to being rich, other than paying taxes and having relatives asking for money. But being famous, that’s a 24 hour job right there.

I don’t think being a good James Bond girl has to do with nationality. I think it has to do with a specific person at a certain time being right for the specific needs of a given script. It has to do with talent and personality, regardless of nationality.

Acting is a mysterious process.

I like acting because I get to find different parts of myself, or at least create different parts that don’t already exist, and see the world through someone else’s eyes.

And Shanghai is amazing. I’m a fan of science fiction so when you’re there in the night with all the lights and all this modernity, it’s like a set in a movie.