Morgan Freeman famous quotes

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Struggle #Bird #Locks

I've always been a fan of or desired to or responded to variety. I like variety in life, so variety in work is a must.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Fans #Variety

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

#Thinking #People #Disability

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Strong #Play #Careers

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

#Hate #Scared #Phobia

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

#Air #Quality #Global Warming

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

#Inspirational #Life #Meditation

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Trying #Fuel #Saving

Never give up the ganja.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Weed #Giving Up #Never Giving Up

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Morning #Sleep #Grumpiness

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Success #Perseverance #Determination

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Taken #Golf #Exercise

Donald Trump is the Honey Boo Boo of rich people.
-- Morgan Freeman

#People #Honey #Rich

If you look back on your life and where you started from it's like looking back down a mountain back to the desert floor. It's like now I can't believe I had whatever it takes or perceived whatever it took to get here.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Believe #Mountain #Looks

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

#Black History #Want #Months

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Jobs #Want #Bed

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Play #Doe #Easy

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Giving Up #Awards #People

Challenge yourself; it’s the only path which leads to growth.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Challenges #Growth #Path

That is a big turn-on for me, a director who knows what he's doing and what he wants, and knows when he's gotten what he wants.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Want #Directors #Bigs

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#War #Stupid #Fighting

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

#Hard Work #Night #Walking Away

I gravitate towards gravitas.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Gravitas

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Struggle #Years #Promise

The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Perseverance #Struggle #Loss

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Life #Struggle #Thinking

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

#New York #Jobs #Actors

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Jobs #Struggle #Bread

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

#Actors #Impossible

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

#Kindness #World #Changing The World

The better the actor, usually the safer you feel working with.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Actors #Feels

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Kings #Memories #Rights

There's an exercise we do where someone is sat behind you and you're asked to close your eyes and fall backwards. That's acting.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Fall #Eye #Exercise

We’re turning everything on the planet into food for humans so we’re cutting down the rainforests, displacing all of the animals, and we’re doing all this to feed humans... ... Imagine if there were only 2 billion people polluting? We’re already overpopulated. I feel we’ve become a parasite on this planet. If this population keeps growing, we’ll just keep devouring the planet, and I don’t think it’s going to stand for that very long.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Cutting #Animal #Thinking

I'm also very fond of a light business jet, so I'd like to get it before it's too late.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Light #Too Late

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

#Costumes #Lines #Mystery

Which lady would I like to meet? Um, I don't know that there's anybody left that I didn't meet. But the one that I really wanted to meet died and that was Princess Diana. I really wanted to get to know her. I like her.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Princess #Diana #Wanted

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

#Believe #Successful #Theater

Working on stage is really a great voice developer.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Voice #Stage

In the harshest place on Earth, ... love finds a way.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Love #Way #Earth

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

#Acting #Causes #Talent

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Stars #Character #Differences

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Guarantees #Want #Way

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

#Struggle #Men #White

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Play #Differences #Impact

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Birthday #Believe #Age

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

#Trying #Trying New Things #Learning New Things

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

#Kings #Hero #Black

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Preparation #May #Pages

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Acting #Scripts #Approach

I find it difficult to watch myself... I find it boring.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Watches #Boring #Difficult

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Character #Cutting #Color

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Proud #Irony #Ends

You do a movie. However long it lasts, it begins and it ends in a relatively short period of time. In a given period of time, let's say a year, you can have three, four, or five different experiences which is exciting.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Years #Long #Three

You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.
-- Morgan Freeman

#People

If you sat down and you wrote a script, you may write something that's way beyond what you've ever seen me do, but if you thought of me to do it, I would be flattered to be asked to do something other than be wise.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Wise #Writing #May

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

#Struggle #Thinking #Oscars

The trick to any profession is making it look easy.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Looks #Easy #Tricks

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

#Fabulous #Hats #Dresses

I've never had any intimate relationships with a dolphin.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Dolphins #Intimate

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Stars #People #Actors

People don't want to hang around someone that you don't know how they're going to react to anything you do or say.
-- Morgan Freeman

#People #Want

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

#Wise #Men #Perfect

I was very lucky once I got started with a career. I happened to get some really good parts to play with some really good people to play with.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Play #Careers #People

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

#Sake #Way #Different

I was lucky in that when the opportunity came, I was prepared to meet it.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Opportunity #Lucky #Prepared

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

#Business #Acting #Grows

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#People #Want #Red

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

#Teenager #School #Settling

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

#Choices #Acting #Not Sure

First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America. There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Race #White #Kansas

Someone's always going to come down on the side of the fence.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Sides #Fence

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Struggle #Drinking #Weather

I have a problem with writer/directors, personal. I can't work well with both of them on the set, if both of them are giving instructions. Writers tend to be in love with what they wrote. You can't always translate the words into the meaning, sometimes the meaning is better served without the words, difficult to make a writer to try to understand that. It gets, sometimes, tense.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Giving #Trying #Directors

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Moving #Mind #Looks

When I was a kid, I was a cowboy. I had a cap pistol, and I'd get up in the morning and strap it on before I got ready.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Morning #Kids #Cowboy

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

#Careers #Boss #Ends

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Writing #Thinking #Acting

When I was growing up, I didn't see me in the movies except in certain lesser roles. If it wasn't funny, I wasn't there. Then Sidney Poitier came along, and he wasn't funny. He was just good. There's me. So that was my pattern.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Growing Up #Patterns #Roles

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

#Joy #Finding Yourself #Skins

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Growing Up #Children #Opportunity

I don't have anybody telling me what to say. I have people who would suggest, maybe, that I shouldn't do this, that or the other, but that's strictly up to me.
-- Morgan Freeman

#People

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Jobs #Book #Thinking

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Two #Three #Stories

What I haven't talked about I don't intend to talk about.
-- Morgan Freeman

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Real #Thinking #Play

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

#Actors #Wanted #Wells

I don't think that anyone learns anything. Well, I mean, you do always learn something if you have your eyes and ears open. You do learn something from every outing, every time that you go for it. But for me what actors do is interact and that's why you have to do that.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Mean #Eye #Thinking

I've always been really hot on westerns. All my life growing up, cowboy, cowboy, cowboy.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Growing Up #Cowboy #Growing

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

#Comedy #Easy #Materials

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

#Comedian #Stuff #Funny Stuff

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Pain #Laughter #Theatre

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

#Should #Firm #Believer

One universe, four forces, billions of galaxies. The precision and complexity of our world is enough to make even the famous cosmologist go just a little bit crazy. How does it all fit together? Is there a single, overarching design to the cosmos? And if we find it, will we glimpse the mind of God?
-- Morgan Freeman

#Crazy #Our World #Design

I'm not one who can write out a speech and remember all the names of the people that you need to thank because you need to thank all of those people.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Writing #Names #People

It's seldom that you get to work with one director more than once. I've worked with Clint Eastwood three times, but that's the only one that's happened with, simply because I adore his work.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Three #Directors #Adore

I think you take a job, you owe it as much passion as the job itself demands. And most jobs demand that you be totally committed.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Jobs #Passion #Thinking

Race seems to me to be less and less a subject worth discussing.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Race #Subjects

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.
-- Morgan Freeman

#Dream #Ideas #Feet

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

#Believe #Long #Matter