Zoe Saldana quotes:

I'm very accepting with my age. It's like notches on your belt: experience, wisdom, and a different kind of beauty. There comes a day when you've become comfortable in your skin.

People think of Latina women as being fiery and fierce, which is usually true. But I think the quality that so many Latinas possess is strength. I'm very proud to have Latin blood.

Growing up, my dolls were doctors and on secret missions. I had Barbie Goes Rambo.

I want to be the best daughter, sister, friend and wife I can possibly be - because when I die, I am not going to be buried with my Oscar.

I'm a sci-fi girl. If I can have anything in life, I'd want tons of great science-fiction movies and stories. It's so progressive, beautiful, and imaginative.

Physical roles give me a chance to learn something new.

I'm learning the power of going away for the weekend and keeping myself company.

If there's anything that I've always said about myself is that to me, it's much more important for me to get to work with filmmakers that I've grown up loving and admiring.

Call me crazy - I love elk meat!

I don't understand labels. I don't need anybody to tell me I'm Latina or black or anything else. I've played characters that were written for Caucasian females, I just want to be given the same consideration as everybody else, and so far that has been happening.

I'm more of a guy's girl. I like having a beer in a bar, and I don't bicker or sit down and do my nails.

Fathers, sons, brothers, men everywhere: Your legacy will not perish if you take your partner's surname, or she keeps hers.

I had to quit ballet because it felt like a part of me was dying inside.

As a woman, you spend so much time either cooking or getting ready to go somewhere. I like to have music when I'm doing either of these things.

It gets pretty boring when all you are is the support system for a male character.

I just want to be a part of great stories, whether I'm part of an amazing ensemble cast or I'm leading it or the antagonist or whatever.

The biggest battle that I have is being a woman in the world. That takes center stage for me.

Happiness is nothing but temporary moments here and there - and I love those. But I would be bored out of my mind if I were happy all the time.

I want to be in the small percentage of women who don't settle for conventional roles.

I have a hyper personality.

I think as an American society, when we're paying too many taxes or dealing with war, we don't want to see sad things at the movies.

I love the anxiety, the pressure of the loud room full of yapping kids. But I'm a kid myself.

I love aging. Why would I want to be 21 for the rest of my life?

Music is a very big participant in everything I do, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed.

I'm so intrigued by women throughout history where the significance of what they were representing at that time is obscured by the fact a man saved them or they were prostitutes.

There's nobody on this earth who can tell you that what you're feeling is wrong. They can tell you it's different to what they're feeling.

I am hoping for a long career.

In dance you use every party of your body except your voice. I wanted to start acting because I wanted to use my voice.

I love wearing men's clothing and underwear.

I never like to get political, but when you have the ability, through your media, to influence a large mass of people, I would want to be a part of the evolving cycle of progress vs. keeping things the way that they are.

To be seen and to be respected for my work and acknowledged as a true American Latina... means a lot to me.

I would love to play Nefertiti or Cleopatra or the Queen of Sheba. We preserve more male history than we do female. We have to preserve [female history]. No more complaining. We have to do it.

I am fluent in Spanish and I understand French, Italian and Portuguese.

Glamour is about feeling good in your own skin.

I'm a very feminine person, but I have this hard shell, man, and I stay focused and don't take things personally.

I want to have more sex, travel more, drink more wine and love life.

There are a lot of magazines that are still sort of... that only cater to a certain demographic and only put certain people on their covers.

Dancing for the length of time that I did, it centered me in such a way to be really in tune with my body, and I just feel like I'm physically able to do things because of my ballet background. Without ballet, I don't think I'd look graceful at all on screen.

Our brains are very animal but also very strange and egotistical. We're narcissistic.

I don't like things like little sandals that look fragile. I like to look strong and commanding.

I like to look strong and commanding.

It takes a lot of courage to face up to things you can't do because we feed ourselves so much denial.

I know the responsibility that entails from telling a story. The one thing I despise the most is when I go to a movie and I see a whole bunch of lazy actors making me waste my time and money.

Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don't have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off.

A child speaks more sense than an adult half of the time.

As actors you have this trait to imitate very easily. I don't want to imitate anything or limit myself of finding this creature, this woman because I'm looking at magazines and I'm reading comics, and I'm asking people that are avid readers of The Guardians.

As an artist, I like working with filmmakers that have the balls to kind of imagine the unimaginable. Those are kind of the radicals that I identify with.

Basically, there's not enough sex in movies, that's it. I'm trying to say it, people. I miss sex in movies because sex is natural, guns are not.

Before an actor can be this or be that, the actor must simply be.

Being a former dancer, classical dancer, it informed me as a human being just in terms of the grace I guess. Ballet is a very graceful form of art. You also become very aware of your body and your mind and your body is working in conjunction. That kind of helps you in acting as well. It's not only using your mind, it's like making your mind communicate this character into your body so that you can bring it to life and physicalize it.

Britney's a very beautiful human being. After I worked with her, I realized that there was a reason why she was the most popular pop artist over so many other pop artists at that time who were more talented, had better voices. And it was because of her heart, her soulShe had the most amazing energy and was always positive and a very discreet person. We were young, too, and got to make a movie about three friends on a road trip. It was so much fun!

Every character has their reasons - even the characters who do dumb things.

For me, it's very important if I do action movies and I have a stunt person, to work with them. Not only by memorizing the choreography but also it's important to study that individual and it's imperative for that individual to study you because you're not playing two different people, you're playing the same person.

For the actor's wishes to be respected in terms of characteristics that your character's gonna have, you have to work with good and intelligent and talented stunt people that not only can carry weapons well but can also carry a personality.

I always strive to keep a balance with my fears. I don't like to be ruled by them. At the same time, I don't like the idea of living my life totally free of any fears. I like having that moderation.

I do believe in us as actors and directors and writers and producers and also as movie-goers. We have much more power than we believe we have. Without our ticket, studios can't make traditional decisions.

I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.

I felt a combination of happiness and humility [ to People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People ]. At the same time there's a lot of pressure, because people can approach you whose intentions aren't in the best place, and they can say things that are very hurtful. And on one of those days when you wake up and you just go and get your coffee without worrying about looking your best, you make yourself vulnerable to someone who'd say something like, "You look awful for being on the Top 100 list."

I find it really frustrating when people go, "I want to be famous and glamorous like you."

I find it really frustrating when people go, "I want to be famous and glamorous like you." It's hard for me not to have a bad thought when someone says that to me, since if there's anything this business is not, is glamorous. It's only glamorous for maybe five minutes every now and then.

I get along very well with animals and children. I dig them, I get them.

I grew up loving action movies and films that were set in supernatural, unimaginable places. So I take being a woman in the film industry who is able to do action movies very seriously because I'm making the kind of movies that I wanted to watch as I was a kid and that inspired me and are the reason as to why I am here.

I have an amazing mother who's a real tough cookie. She taught me not to get emotional about [sexism in Hollywood], just be really practical and objective. Later, in the privacy of my own home, maybe I'll bawl or break some dishes, but you just have to keep going. It's not about fighting, it's about educating.

I have been in relationships where a man has disrespected me, and I don't need to be friends with that man anymore. I don't want to be the one going, 'I'm cool, because I'm friends with all my exes.' There's a reason why you're called an ex. I crossed you off my list. Moving on. You cross a line, you need to know that you're going to walk this earth knowing that there's an individual who has no respect for you.

I just want to be part of great stories that are told and for them to be relevant.

I knew who Leonard Nimoy was, and that he embodied what Star Trek meant to all the fans. But it wasn't until I started doing my research for this movie, and started going to fan sites, that I began to fall in love with these characters.

I like to be around people who are very passionate. People that won't fight but that will be very over-protective and outspoken about their opinion, their point of view, their ideas.

I love being in space. I love being challenged by great roles that a company like Marvel creates amazing movies that no only give audiences an adventure but also give us as artists an opportunity for us to be challenged to embody amazing, multilayered characters.

I love skin. I don't believe the body is something to hide.

I love women. I worship women. Don't want to be any other woman but myself.

I never really watched the TV series.

I think there are roles there; we just have to choose them. We have to fight for them.

I was a ballet dancer for so long, but when I realized I had reached my limit and that I couldn't go any further I knew I wanted to pursue acting. That's one thing you don't use as a dancer - your voice. And the one thing I use most in my life is my voice so it's wonderful to get to express myself artistically through the biggest instrument I use.

If there's any relevant influence we may have with an investor, with a studio, with a director, with an actor, I think we have to fight.

I'm a fan of the fan. I'm a fan of the active devotee who lives his life believing in something, who represents to me the character of a person that is very confident and sure of himself. Those are people I admire.

I'm a girl from Queens. I've never gone, 'What am I doing today? Oh, I'm gonna grab a gun and learn how to use it.'

I'm a kid from New York, so urban life reflected into art and music was around me and accessible and tangible.

In Caribbean there is no middle class: you're either rich or you're poor. And the ladder to success is not really a ladder, it's a chain; once you reach a certain level, you can't go back and you can only keep going forward.

It's important for a director to provide as much information, especially when we're working with things that we have to conceive out of thin air. You can't just expect an actor to understand: 'Oh, there's a dinosaur coming at you". OK, so I'm going to automatically know how big it is and what it sounds like? I need details. How close does he get to me? How tall is he? What will the impact be of his cry when he's screaming at me or when he's blowing smoke or air in my face?

It's insecure, and it's immature.

It's ok to say, 'this is what I want' and go after it.

I've witnessed racism all my life. And of course there's racism and discrimination in Hollywood. You go for a part and they say, 'Oh, we really liked her, she's amazing, but we wanted to go with something more traditional'. As if I'm not a traditional American!

Let's start creating better roles that accurately depict people we know so closely.

Look at me. I'm skinny, I have a big nose, no tits and no ass, but in a room full of beautiful women, I would still leave with the most gorgeous guy.

My twenties were great. Who didn't have fun in their twenties? But my attention was more out there, more about the surface stuff and the cosmetic stuff. I was always thinking, 'What do I need to do?' Now in my thirties, it's, 'What do I want to do?' I've just become more solid with my own identity. So whoever wants to say their twenties are better... Yes, they're fun, especially at night - better parties, better cocktails... not better sex though. Absolutely not. And whoever says that is lying because sex in your thirties and beyond is f**king out of this world.

Not to settle. If you're not happy with a person, leave. And wait until you find that one person who makes you feel good about yourself every single day and is not expecting you to change, but to grow.

On the basis of being a woman, by playing an alien, I avoid playing someone's girlfriend here on Earth because that's a bit of a canker sore.

Our censorship has sort of gotten a little too far. Too much censorship is just as bad as having none at all. Children need to be exposed to things, because if they don't see it, eventually, it's not like it's not going to happen, but it's just that there needs to be a balance.

Science fiction is a genre that no everyone is keen on watching.

Sometimes we get too caught up in wanting to do that one movie that will get seen and approved and nominated, that we lose sight that there are so many other movies that are worth your time.

Sometimes we have to be patient because the one thing that is inevitable in life is evolution. Whether it comes at the pace that we are expecting it or not, it's inevitable.

The biggest obstacle I've had to overcome is being a woman in a man's world.

There comes a day when you've become comfortable in your skin. But God as my witness, I am going to try to do everything I can to keep this ass together for as long as I possibly can - without going against nature.

Trust me: Studios, investors, filmmakers, they will shift because they just follow the money trail.

What doesn't feel okay to me, what feels a little bit out of balance, is when you want to turn yourself into something else - when you want to be another person.

When I act, a part of me goes into the character I am playing.

Where people really base their principles has nothing to do with the color of someone's skin, it has to do with money and their class.

You find a way to work with people you have more in common with.

You have to be very committed and find happiness in the work that you do.

You need one hundred percent commitment; you have to be willing to wake up every morning knowing you're going to [practice] eight hours straight.