Morgan Freeman Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I find it difficult to watch myself... I find it boring.

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.

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.

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

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 feel fine, I don't care who the director is. All you have to do is know what your doing - all of us - everybody in the business - that's all you ask anyone - you know your job, I know mine, let's go do it.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I'm not one for blaspheming -- but that one made me laugh.

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.

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

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

One of the things you can always depend on - this is one of the truths of the universe, and you heard it first from here - whatever we decide we want to do is what we do.

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

Once you've gotten the job, there's nothing to it. If you're an actor, you're an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it.

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

Just that working with Clint again is like coming home.

When I was doing theater, I was very successful at believing that I was great, God's gift to the theater.

I don't know what my favorite film of mine is... But I think the most important film I was in was 'Glory'.

I like the blues a lot. I grew up on it.

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.

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.

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.

You're going to relegate my history to a month.

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.

People say it's a movie about boxing, but... I don't agree at all. I don't think it's a movie about boxing. Boxing is like a platform. It's just a stage where this is played out.

We are all part of American history. Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero. ... The world needs his message today more than ever before.

We know its a very clean-burning fuel. It's renewable ... all we need to do is make it available.

We call on anybody who has even the thought (of giving) to get beyond the thought and help these people.

We want to give people what they want, when they want it. We are following the wave.

Anyone anywhere in the world who has the service will have front row seats right in the comfort of their own home. Think about that.

In my country, we talk to our women, not drug them with plants.

You want to be home about three weeks after you left in a big way but the family's okay, particularly if you're going someplace you never been before.

I don't think you're going to get nominated every time you jump out of the box.

I'm not sure that my upbringing has in itself informed my acting choices.

What do I want to do? Acting wise? Well, there's a western that I want to do. There's a lot of producing that I want to do, projects that I have stacked up that are in my office that I'd like to get done.

If you dream you've got to dream that it's going to happen. Remember that. If you dream you have to imagine that it will actually happen.

I would never complain that Hollywood is racist when I'm one of the people touted as a welcome entity there.

I think that we did a really good thing when we elected Barack Obama. I read his books. He is absolutely and totally qualified for the job. He's proven himself to be not only qualified for the job, but very good at it. The things that he's managed to get accomplished in the face of so much push-back is amazing, and I think - this is Morgan Freeman's personal thought - we're going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't reelect him, because the people on the other side of the fence scare me.

I want to be up there, being lauded and applauded and given all these and on the red carpet, waving at the hordes of people.

I remember saying to my agent, "Listen, everybody's going out to Hollywood and making movies. I think I ought to go out there." And his advice to me was, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. If they want you in Hollywood, they'll send you." And sure enough, they did.

I was 22 before I took my first dance class. I had never been athletic, so I was very stiff; I still am. I think what I got mostly from dance was carriage.

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.

In my home, who is my boss? If you ask my wife she'll say certainly not her. She claims that she can't make me do anything and so she's not my boss. I am. I'm pretty sure, maybe.

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.'.

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 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.

Doing comedy is as easy as doing anything else. You're dependent totally on the material.

I really wanted to work with Luc Besson. I'm a big fan of his. Did you ever see 'The Professional.' It was very violent. But a fabulous story, a fabulous movie, very well done. So that and two or three other projects of his that I've seen, I just thought if I had a shot to work with him I wanted to do it.

Writing I think, out of what all of us do, writing is the hardest. You're the only who start with nothing except what's up here. You do that. It's really hard I think, acting is not.

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

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.

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.

Working on stage is really a great voice developer.

If I wasn't acting, I have no clue what I'd be doing 'cause I have no other talent.

I think the educational value is what comes first. I've always thought that the most effective tools we have for disseminating information, i.e. education, is television and film.

I'm a firm believer that things happen as they should. The universe unfolds just as it's supposed to.

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

I've travelled a lot, but I am essentially American. All my input has been American.

If your income on films or whatever you're producing using film drops below a certain level, then you don't have enough money to stay in business. People like to say that this is all just about making money, but if you don't make money, you don't make anything.

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

I like working with directors because I'm really opinionated about what things work and may not work, what audiences like and may not like, (not really) but I do have opinions about things. I like to be able to say them and then have them acted on. The director who responds to me like that, always gets my appreciation. I do appreciate it. What I find is the best directors, no matter what kind of name they have, are like that.

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.

You want to retire from a job you're not that all enamoured with. I love what I do. I want to keep doing it till I can't get out of bed doing it.

I try to keep my mind active. I'm a solitaire and puzzle addict. I exercise religiously. I don't do many things religiously and I've taken up golf to have something to do when I have nothing to do.

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.

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.

If we don't save the oceans, if we don't do something about what we're doing to the oceans, as well as the planet at large, we're going to be really sorry.