"I'm not sad at all about turning 40."

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

"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."

"You have to get the audience invested even if you're doing something that they think is dumb, it's kind of what these movies are all about."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"Beauty is not just physical."

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

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

"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."

"I spent a lot of time with a crown on my head."

"My whole life I've had the fear that I was going to be abandoned."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"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 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.'"

"Every story about me is so heavy and dramatic. That's not how I do life. But that's the impression people have, and that's what keeps getting reiterated. As if I'm still stuck in all the muck of the past. And I am so not."

"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."

"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."

"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'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."

"People win Oscars, and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head. The moment I won the Oscar, I felt the teardown the very next day."

"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.'"

"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!"

"But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."

"When the bird of the heart begins to sing, too often will reason stop up her ears."

"Where words fail, music speaks."

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

"To travel is to live."

"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live."

"Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead."

"Every man's life is a fairy tale, written by God's fingers."

"Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up."

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale."