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.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

I feel upsettingly de-natured. If Penelope Cruz were one of my nurses, I wouldn’t even notice.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It’s also the dangerous part and it’s an ugly emotion that hurts.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man’s soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Most damage that others do us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion.

I think that it’s okay to be mad at someone who hurt you. This isn’t about, like, the pageantry of trying to seem like nothing affects you.

A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk.

For ‚Hercules,‘ I went for the demigod look: big and mean. When you’re playing a character like the son of Zeus, you only get one shot.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

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

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

I never fall in love.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

Songs for me are like a message in a bottle. You send them out to the world, and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

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.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Having a child, that’s always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child.

Storytelling is about two things; it’s about character and plot.

Many people tell me that they don ‚t know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That’s good.

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds, they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material.

When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?

Hearing voices no one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.

Only God who made us can touch us and change us and save us from ourselves.

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

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

My imagination is a twisted place.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

I’m tired. I’m tired of feeling rejected by the American people. I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night worrying about the war.

We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

When I was a kid, I read the science-fiction shelves, and I read the fantasy shelves.

Falling in love and having a relationship are two different things.

Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

Love is an interesting thing. Perhaps I’ve never been in love before – I don’t really know? I think I have. I guess it’s subjective in that way.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

I don’t know, I feel desperate when I sing. And I look desperate – it feels like I’m singing for my life, which makes me twitch, if that makes sense.

This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.

We were born to die and we die to live. As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset – tears are words waiting to be written.

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all – make us laugh, think, cry and cheer – preferably in that order.

Grief changes shape, but it never ends.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

What we feel and think and are is to a great extent determined by the state of our ductless glands and viscera.

No one loves the man whom he fears.

By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man.

We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.

All you need is love.

But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.