Morgan Freeman quotes:

Still, it can be more effective to accomplish what you need to accomplish with the minimum effort. Watch Anthony Hopkins. He doesn't appear to be doing anything. He is so still that you can't see him working, but you are drawn into his character through his very stillness.

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as our prince of peace, of civil rights. We owe him something major that will keep his memory alive.

Let me be the first to tell you, drinking alcohol is the worst thing to do in cold weather. Hot soup is the best because the process of digesting food helps to warm you up.

My parents were working in a hospital in Memphis. But I didn't live there for any length of time that I remember. The first thing I remember is the town in Mississippi that I live in now, Charleston.

Donald Trump is the Honey Boo Boo of rich people.

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen - that stillness becomes a radiance.

I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.

The accident was a horrible thing - but that horrible thing made Chris, at the end of his life, Superman. It's a happy irony if there is such a thing. I'm proud to have known him.

I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving.

A lot of people are going around saying, 'You won the Academy Award for such and such.' 'No. I didn't.' 'You didn't?' 'Well, you should have.'.

It's just the stupidest law possible... You're just making criminals out of people who aren't engaged in criminal activity. And we're spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can't win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It's stupid.

If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death.

Let me tell you about being executive producer. It is not a job, it's a title. Don't go around asking executive producers what they do because they don't do anything, alright?

Being blind is as simple as closing your eyes. The blind don't act any different than you or I. You never see a blind person going around saying, 'I'm blind.' So if you want to play blind just close your eyes and keep them closed and fare thee well.

I don't get off on romantic parts. But I often think if I had had my dental work done early on, well, maybe.

Just that working with Clint again is like coming home.

Not only do I have to live, right, I have to get some cash for my troubles - it's a scary thing, and people need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies.

People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies.

I do know there are a lot of people who seem to be in my corner, and that's, of course, wonderful. I'm really more interested in the nomination than in the award, because I think the nomination just puts you within a group of outstanding actors.

In my career? Me. I'm the boss. I'm the end all and be all. I'm the alpha and omega in that.

It's sort of well-known that anytime any catastrophe happens anywhere in the world, they can count on the United States for help.

If you're playing somebody who is not you, then you can imagine that you are that person. You can feel like he feels, move like he moves, look like he looks - in your own mind.

When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.

Our situation, with global warming and air quality and all of that, has gotten to be catastrophic.

Life doesn't offer you promises whatsoever so it's very easy to become, 'Whatever happened to... ?' It's great to be wanted. I spent a few years not being wanted and this is better.

There's no mystery to it. Nothing more complicated than learning lines and putting on a costume.

I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.

I joined the air force. I took to it immediately when I arrived there. I did three years, eight months, and ten days in all, but it took me a year and a half to get disabused of my romantic notions about it.

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' 'Has your life brought joy to others?'

Turn on the news and see how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single 'victim' of Columbine?

Somebody once said to me after I'd done "Deep Impact," "What is it like to play a Black president," and I said, "I didn't play a Black president. I played a president. I just happened to be Black. There's a difference.

I'm easy going for the most part but sometimes in the morning if I didn't sleep well I can be kind of grumpy. But my grumpiness doesn't have that much to do with my dissatisfaction with my station in life.

I don't do cold. My reaction to cold is drastic. I'm a southern boy.

From early childhood, my thrust was to get into the movies.

I don't need any more press. I get enough when I work, but environmental causes is one place where you can get me to open my mouth. And put my foot in it if necessary. I think the only thing I do that gives me any bragging rights in terms of energy conservation is sailing. Just using wind power.

And finding the hat, I always like to find the hat. And then props just dress the set. It's all fabulous.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.

I'm not a comedian. I don't make things funny if they're not funny. I don't invent funny stuff.

I grew up in the South but I started dancing in my twenties when I got out of the Air Force, and studying dance, you're surrounded by gay guys all the time. You get to know them and you have to shift gears!

In growing up, I was a child of the movies. I went to the movies every given opportunity, and that's pretty much what has informed a lot of my choices.

I gravitate towards gravitas.

I always knew that someone was going to come at me with a script to play God. It's just one of those things, the way your career is unfolding and all the talk about gravitas etc etc, so I had a strong feeling that someone was going to offer me the part of God. I was totally prepared to say, 'Thanks but no thanks,' unless it was a comedy.

Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.

I hate the word homophobia. It's not a phobia. You are not scared. You are an asshole,

If I stay at home, I'm not famous. I'm only famous when I'm out in the streets, so I don't go out on the streets much.

I always wanted to be a fireman, a cop, an Indian chief, a doctor, a lawyer. I always wanted to be all these things, so I am drawn to these kinds of characters.

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.

I'm always trying new things and learning new things. If there isn't anything more you can learn - go off and die.

If you're not living on the edge then you're taking up a little too much space.

Attacking People With Disabilities is the Lowest Display of Power I Can Think Of

And some places you been before are so great that you don't ever mind going back. Some places you been before you don't ever want to go back, you know, like Montreal in the Winter.

If you're comfortable on a horse, you're comfortable on a horse. It's like being on a motorbike.

This kid came up with Napster, and before that, none of us thought of content protection.

Most of the time it's the role. Sometimes it's the story and sometimes it just the paycheck. It's the little movies that come out as stories or the fact that I have work to go out, you know what I'm saying, you can only be out so long without work, you start getting antsy.

I once heard a wise man say there are no perfect men. Only perfect intentions.

I knew at an early age I wanted to act. Acting was always easy for me. I don't believe in predestination, but I do believe that once you get where ever it is you are going, that is where you were going to be.

How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.

It [love about acting] is all about role playing - the same thing you do when you're a kid, when you play with dolls or toys and make up stories. I never grew out of it.

Insanity is coasting through life in a miserable existence when you have a caged lion locked inside and the key to release it.

But I can say that life is good to me. Has been and is good. So I think my task is to be good to it. So how do you be good to life? You live it.

It's what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing.

Playing is no challenge; every time that you get a role you get to go play with other people in the sandbox and so there is no challenge, real challenge. The challenge, the major challenge is getting the work, finding the sandbox.

Nobody is trying to save energy. We're trying to shift our use of fuel. Forget saving energy; if we get the right kind of energy, there are endless amounts.

I'm making a great effort because sometimes life is not enjoyable. Sometimes it's painful and sometimes it's stressful, sometimes it's agonizing even, so I think once you get around those humps: strive for pleasure and peace.

...if we get the right kind of energy, there are endless amounts. I think we should be developing every kind of alternative fuel that is available to us. That includes hydrogen to soybeans, from solar to wind. Whatever we can find that is going to help us clean up the environment we should be working really hard on developing.

I like the character roles. Somewhere back there I really came to the conclusion in my mind that the difference between acting and stardom was major. And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in.

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.

As the mask of deception falls off the face of humanity Unveiling the grim reality of duality In which everyone is a casualty, no one will be exempt Truth has many shades It's not a matter of black and white, but gray Although many, we are one, so in the final analysis Could it be that we are fighting a war that can't be won?

Stage is really hard work. You've got to do it every night. Not like doing it once and walking away.

I got my first job as a card-carrying actor in New York in 1967. Before that, I was a very desperate wannabe.

Never give up the ganja.

I just wanted to be an actor. It's better to be well-rounded.

The main thing about awards in movies is that they can serve as an economic surge for the film. If you're movie gets nominated for any award it does it a big favour. People might go and see it again... they won't give up on it.

Is there a movie I think I should have won the Oscar for? Yeah. All of them.

The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we'll do it for nothing. That's a basic fact - you gotta do it.

I can only be so long without work before I start getting antsy.

It can have an enormous effect because big budget movies can have big budget perks, and small budget movies have no perks, but what is the driving force, of course, is the script, and your part in it.

Black history is American history.

People hear that and say I'm being modest, but I am not a modest person, but I have to be truthful about what I'm doing and what I'm doing is channeling.

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.

I've been living with myself all of my life, so I know all of me. So when I watch me, all I see is me. It's boring.

Give me something interesting to play and I'm happy.

I want to thank everybody and anybody who ever had anything to do with the making of this picture.

As you grow in this business, you learn how to do more with less.

"You are the actor, and I understand we already had our sit down, you explained your concept, your view," so I said, "Okay, I'm in your hands." That means that if you've got to nudge me a little bit to the right I move to the right, just from the pressure, weight, but you won't have to touch me at all. You can come and go "Okay, you want me over here a little bit more," so no pressure on us at all that's easy to do.

A scientist sounds like a scientist because the things that come out of their mouth don't stumble, that's all. If they [said], "And the, um, a microwave, uh," you know, then you don't sound right, but if you can just get it out without stumbling then you're going to sound fine.

Acting means living, it's all I do...

Actors cannot work against each other. It's totally impossible.

All my life, all my life that I can, as far back as I can remember, I saw my first movie when I was six years old. And since then I wanted to do that. I wanted to be a part of that.

All you have to do is believe, then you will see everything.

And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in.

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable.

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

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.

Costume is always an asset. Normal costume you have a lot to say about - if you're wearing suits or ties, and what color you want, and how it's going to be cut, and stuff like that, and whether or not you're going to wear a hat, and blah, blah, blah. But, when you're wearing a special costume, and of course, costume is probably the second ingredient in character, script being first, I always find that the costume does a lot to cement your character, to put it firmly in mind.

Did you just call me old? I really prefer the word 'experienced'.

Don't be afraid of what you want. This is your time. The barriers are down.

Don't be different just for different's sake. If you see it differently, function that way. Follow your own muse, always.

Even through my good-looking youth, I wasn't called on for any romantic parts, which is okay. What I was called on to do, I enjoyed doing. The funny thing about life is that if you live long enough, I think, you'll get every wish you ever had. It'll all come true.

Every job's a challenge. The challenge is to do it and make it look right, like you belong there - wherever that is.

Everybody works the same, but the preparation very often may be different. You cannot work differently. You have to say the words that were written on the page, and you have to make your marks. That's the work.

Fatigue, discomfort, discouragement are merely symptoms of effort.

Finding joy is probably tantamount to finding yourself and being comfortable in your own skin.

Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear.

Freeman denied the claim that he was a "man of God", saying that "the question of faith is whatever you actually believe is. We take a lot of what we're talking about in science on faith; we posit a theory, and until it's dis-proven we have faith that it's true. If the mathematics work out, then it's true, until it's proven to be untrue.

Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.

Growing up in Mississippi, I realized that it was separate and unequal and all that, but it was still a safe place.

Hey, if I don't have a job, I don't know why I bother to get up. Any time the phone rings, I'm ready to go. What else am I going to do? See, I've never retired. I don't even know what it means.

How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it!

I am God. So it's easy to play him. They say God is in all things. So if God is in me, then I am in God. Therefore, I am God. God does not exist without me.

I am impatient with directors who don't know what they want, and the way you don't know what they want is because they want to do one more. "Let's do one more." So, "What for?" I guarantee you there's not going to be a change.

I avoid seeing myself while I'm working on role so I won't see "me."

I believe in helping the planet survive, and that includes reaching out to help some of the disappearing creatures whose habitats we're destroying. It's up to us to somehow reverse that trend. I don't know how we'll achieve it, but we need to.

I believe it doesn't really matter where you work as long as you work. Keep sharpening your teeth.

I can remember when I first got to los Angeles . I didn't have a car, I didn't have any money. I was walking the streets, you know, trying to get from place to place on foot almost. Sometimes, you know, you say, how am I ever going to get from here to there? There are a lot of people still having that dream and not being able to get there. So you never know. The idea is to keep on tap dancing, though.

I don't do comedy. I think if a situation is funny you just play it for real and if it's funny, it's funny.

I don't have to do anything. The character is shaped on the page.

I don't remember what my favourite comedy film is - truthfully! I saw Borat and I thought I was not going to be able to get out of the theatre because I was in so much pain from the laughter.