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.
Halle Berry
Don't take yourself too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at obstacles that inevitably present themselves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm done with men... I'm going to be alone. I have no luck with relationships. I don't think I'm made for marriage.
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 spent a lot of time with a crown on my head.
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.
The first step is clearly defining what it is you're after, because without knowing that, you'll never get it.
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.
Beauty is not just physical.
I am a hopeless romantic. And I won't stop till I get it right.
After all, everybody has secrets and there are some things that nobody knows about you but only you, right?
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 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.
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'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.
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'll never get married again, and I always hate to say never to anything, but I will never marry again.
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'm just going to live my life and be who I am.
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.
I'm not afraid of portraying anything on-screen.
While being called beautiful is extremely flattering, I would much rather be noticed for my work as an actress.
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.'
I carried my Oscar to bed with me. My first and only three-way happened that night.
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.
Self-esteem comes from who you have in your life. How you were raised. What you struggled with as a child.
I'm not a fanatic about exercising. For me, it's about moderation and balance.
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.
In the X-Men the women are so strong and sexy! We really kick some male butt!
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.
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.
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.'
By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity.
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 don't know why, but I respond well to tortured characters.
And you also have to do movies that are about commerce because that's what is required of the industry today.
I'm not the girl for superhigh fashion because I don't have the right body.
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 done with love, but I refuse to settle.
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.
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.
A person's self-esteem has nothing to do with how she looks.
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 wish all men were like dogs.
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.
I'm not sad at all about turning 40.
