Halle Berry quotes:

I see women in their 30s getting plastic surgery, pulling this up and tucking that back. It's like a slippery slope - once you start you pull one thing one way and then you think, 'Oh my God, I've got to do the other side.'

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.

If you set out to do something and you give it your all and it doesn't work out, be willing to modify your goal slightly. Have the ability to look in another direction. A small shift could guide you to the real purposes of your life.

I archive a lot of my clothes and have them wrapped up and in boxes. I call them 'little tombs' and keep them in a storage space... I would never get rid of the dress I wore on the night I won my Oscar. When I die, someone can have it, but not a minute before!

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

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.

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.

I'm not done with love, but I refuse to settle.

I don't see a white woman. I see a black woman, even though my mother is white. Knowing that has made my life easier, I think.

When I think, where did I laugh the most, where did I eat the most, where did I just feel good all the time, I would say making the Bond movie 'Die Another Day.' To be part of such an iconic franchise and to travel to exotic places - that was the most fun I ever had.

I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper. It gave me a way to show who I was without being angry or violent.

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 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 won't have a traditional marriage; I don't find the value in that anymore. But I am such a hopeless romantic and I really want love and I want a committed relationship, so I am going to reinvent marriage for myself.

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.

The worst thing a man can ever do is kiss me on the first date.

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.

I'll never get married again, and I always hate to say never to anything, but I will never marry again.

Beauty is not just physical.

I'm not sad at all about turning 40.

I do not love to work out, but if I stick to exercising every day and put the right things in my mouth, then my diabetes just stays in check.

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.

I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.

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

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

You think you know what love is - until you have a child and discover that unconditional mother love.

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

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

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

The times may have changed, but the people are still the same. We're still looking for love, and that will always be our struggle as human beings.

Being a mother is probably the most important thing in my life right now.

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

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

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.

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.

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

As beautiful as Halle is on the outside, she's 10 times more beautiful on the inside.

When I got to be about 16,17 I got into a beauty pageant and I was allowed to start playing around with makeup.

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

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 women. So out of that reason alone, I identify more with the black community.

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.

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

When I was younger, living in an all-black neighborhood the other kids thought I was better than them because of my light skin and straight hair. Then we moved to an all-white neighborhood and that was a culture shock ... I'd been used to being around all black kids.

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

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.

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

We've become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth and, frankly, I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in search of that.

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

Having a baby takes so much from you. It's the most glorious thing you'll ever do, but the aftermath is not so glorious!

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.

I used to believe that if my career was going great, then I was not entitled to a great personal life. Well, I've stopped thinking that way. I believe I can have it all.

Being a black woman, I've often felt I've been judged by my sex and my race, and I have always known that it shouldn't hamper me.

I am a hopeless romantic. And I won't stop till I get it right.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

This moment is so much bigger than me. It's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.

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?

I'm not afraid of portraying anything on-screen

To make lips look naturally pink, I put on red lipstick, wipe it off, and then apply clear gloss.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

I'm not the girl for super high fashion because I don't have the right body. When I want to get dressed up, I'm a Roberto Cavalli girl.

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.

My pregnancy was amazing. I was happy that whole time, I felt good, I had energy, I was like Superwoman. I wish I could feel like that for the rest of my life, that's how fantastic it was.

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.

It's an amazing feeling to know that life is actually growing inside your body. The first time you see the ultrasound and you see the little bones and you realise that it's part of you and it's in your care is life changing and this sort of protective instinct has taken over.

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

As a woman, when you embrace where you are in life, then I think the struggle [life] isn't so hard. If you're 42 and still think you're an ingenue, then you've got a problem.

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

I'm a much better mother at 46... than if I were like, 21 or 25.

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.

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.'

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 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.

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.

My style has evolved in a nice way, but everyone has bad moments.

In the X-Men the women are so strong and sexy! We really kick some male butt!

If you really want to be competitive in today's market you have to be in movies that make money.

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.

I know I'm only one human being and I'm only making one tiny contribution and it's nothing more than that.

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

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

A person's self-esteem has nothing to do with how she looks.

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.

After all, everybody has secrets and there are some things that nobody knows about you but only you, right?

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

Although some people will say it's a cliché, I think not having had a father when I was growing up affect me negatively because I didn't have a good role model to follow.

Any time you risk big you often risk losing big. You can win big but you can also lose big, but you have to be willing to take those risks.

Beauty is not just physical. It's about what you stand for, how you live your life.

But I just don't think it's an abyss of nothingness [after death] and that we fall off and that our journey stops. I think it's circular and we go and we go and we go. I know that there are civilizations that I think are way more sophisticated than we are and I think more sophisticated civilizations lived before us.

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

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.

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.

For me, the walk of the character is always the first part that I must define for myself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I am so ready to be a mommy. I can't wait. I notice every little baby dress, every little baby toy, every little baby thing.

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

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 don't know why, but I respond well to tortured characters.

I find when I have short hair, I feel like I have nothing to hide behind anymore.

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.

I knew that I was a good writer in high school and won awards, and I was the editor of my school newspaper. So I knew that I was a good writer and I wanted to somehow capitalize and sort of utilize a talent that I thought I had.

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.