I loved being Maleficent. I was quite sad to put my staff down and put my horns away because somehow, she just lives in a different world.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

I don’t think souls or bodies can be changed by incantation. Or anything else by the way.

When you think about it, three of our biggest financial decisions in life are made at times of peak emotional excitement: deciding to get married, buying a home, and having kids.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.

People always say when they meet me that I’m not what they expect. I assume they think I’m this super dark and depressing guy, but I like to channel all of those emotions into my work.

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn’t take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others we are indifferent.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

I wanted to imbue Ziggy with real flesh and blood and muscle, and it was imperative that I find Ziggy and be him.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth.

I think the perfection of love is that it’s not perfect.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

I think women go crazy for a reason. It’s not like it just happens.

Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

I mean, I feel like you get more bees with honey. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated in my life.

When I was little… I didn’t relate to princesses. I saw Maleficent, and I just thought she was so – she was so elegant.

I like Aurora, ‚Sleeping Beauty,‘ because she’s just sleeping and looking pretty and waiting for boys to come kiss her. Sounds like a good life – lots of naps and cute boys fighting dragons to come kiss you.

There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

I searched for years I found no love. I’m sure that love will never be a product of plasticity.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.

People like music when they’re in love, but they don’t need it as much. You need music when you’re missing someone or you’re pining for someone or you’re forgetting someone or you’re trying to process what just happened.

Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.

If women were particular about men’s characters, they would never get married at all.

Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there’s time, the Bastard Time.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means.

I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up power.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.

Strong emotions such as passion and bliss are indications that you’re connected to Spirit, or ‚inspired,‘ if you will. When you’re inspired, you activate dormant forces, and the abundance you seek in any form comes streaming into your life.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

I disagree with everything I used to say.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

Most people don’t like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Transformation literally means going beyond your form.

Your feelings so are important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken, but tomorrow you’ll be in love again.

People like to hear the word ‚love.‘

Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

Marriage is a school itself. Also, having children. Becoming a father changed my whole life. It taught me as if by revelation.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Maleficent was always so elegant. She always was in control. And to play her was difficult. I worked on my voice a lot. She’s bigger than me. She’s on a different level of performance that I have never done.

What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.

There’s nothing better than having a baby. I’ve always loved children. I used to work summers at the YMCA and be in charge of, like, 30 preschool kids. I knew that when I had a child, I’d be overwhelmed, and it’s true… I can’t tell you how much my attitude has changed since we’ve got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world.

The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it; but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.