Top 154 Quotes & Sayings by Reese Witherspoon - Page 3

I thought I was going to go back to Stanford, and then I got Election. I loved being an actor.

I'd always ask my grandma, who was so, so smart, why she didn't work, and she would explain that her parents didn't approve of her working after she had children. She didn't feel like she had choices.

I was always, as a younger actress, very conscious of not wanting to act sexy. I didn't see myself like that. But I think as a woman, you get older, you feel more confident in your sexuality. You're not as intimidated by it, not as embarrassed by it.

I'm at a point in my life where I could make 20 more movies, but I want to make 20 more movies that matter to me.

No woman's getting hired because of her potential. I hope that we can invest more in female potential.

Growing up in the South, it was very patriarchal. When I applied to Stanford, I was told by a [male] college counselor, "You're never gonna get in, don't bother. They don't want you." I said, "I'm going to try." And I got in! But I wouldn't be the woman I am if I hadn't had that conflict to overcome. It has given me an underdog feeling all my life.

God, America is a country predicated on listening to everybody. When did we stop listening to one another?

Women are wives and mothers and girlfriends, but not the center of our own stories. No one's the good guy; no one's the bad guy. We all do deplorable things and very honorable things.

I grew up in Tennessee. We didn't know what Louis Vuitton was. I had to order all my prom outfits out of catalogs.

Art is art. Television has elevated itself, in certain ways, but it's always pushed people's consciousness.

Women want to see the truth. They don't want to see some perfect girl.

You're an actress! It's not about your ideas! You're there to tell other people's stories.

A [news] magazine printed a [photo-illustration] of me in a ball gown holding a vacuum cleaner, saying I started a company. Last time I checked, I'm not selling vacuums. It was very sexist.

Exploring female rage on film doesn't frighten me - it might frighten a lot of people in my business, but, gosh, I know a lot about that, from personal experience and friends' experiences.

I don't have a lot of physical comedy instincts. I'm more verbal.

My rule is, if it's not moving-monogram it!

No one can sing like June Carter so I just tried to sing my very best.

I was debating whether to do Legally Blonde, and I saw this interview with Gloria Steinem about how important Goldie Hawn's role in Private Benjamin was for women; by the end of the movie, the character socked her fiancé in the face at the altar because he didn't understand who she'd become through her journey. I was like, "I feel like Gloria Steinem told me to do Legally Blonde. That's how Elle Woods is too!"

People seem to really enjoy laughing at me.

More people telling stories leads to more interesting perspectives in this world. I often think we wouldn't get to these political impasses if we had balance in storytelling.

I'm encouraging these women, like Cheryl Strayed, to take the jump to writing for the screen. She is adapting her book Tiny Beautiful Things for us. They're infinitely capable of tackling the format.

I love that people are going, Yeah, I love a hundred different kinds of beauty; it's not all the tall, skinny supermodel. Around the world, we have to find the beauty. Now more than ever, we're looking.

I didn't really understand fashion until I started going to Paris and seeing the ateliers and how hard these people work. It's art.

Sexuality and femininity is an accumulation of age and wisdom and comfort in your own skin.

This is a movement to say we're more than just our dresses. ... It's hard being a woman in Hollywood or any industry.

If more men would see a story of what it was like to be pregnant, and how it felt to be in a place where you had to make a decision about whether to keep a pregnancy, maybe they would feel differently about women's health care.

I've been through really trying experiences personally, and your family is who you turn to.

Is it more fascinating, perplexing, unbelievable that women are entrepreneurs?

I was talking to my friend who's a psychologist, who says a woman's frontal cortex isn't fully developed till 25 and a man's till 28. I was almost 34 when we met; he was 39. So I wouldn't say either of us has wildly changed; I just love him more and more.

And I want to say that my grandmother was one of the biggest inspirations in my life. She taught me how to be a real woman, to have strength and self-respect, and to never give those things away.

You know, I used to not understand fashion, a lot of it, but I completely understood being a playwright or a screenwriter and suddenly having an actor say your words and making them come to life. That I can understand. Finally, I'm starting to understand this.

Everything I sang sounded awful. So I went outside and I screamed. Everyone pretty much agreed it was awful.

Movies will finally reflect the world we live in, not some weird dinosaur reality.

I don't want to discount the beautiful work that the fashion houses do, but somehow, just focusing on what you're wearing feels reductive.