Hilary Swank Quotes

I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. I never thought this would ever happen.

I bring my dogs on set with me, and my little dog Karoo is smart as a whip. She knows where the craft-services food tables are, so anytime I can't find her, I know she has found her way to that area. She's a funny dog.

One of the great things about my job is I get to do all of these things that I may not experience had I not been an actor.

The past is gone. I know it sounds cliché, but you're here. Like be in it. And boxing was a really good analogy for me to try and carry that in my everyday life all the time.

New Yorkers have this special spot in Central Park, where they do this 5K run, the minute the clock strikes twelve. I ran once, and I'll never do that again, either. But, it's awesome to watch those people run. It's such a great environment and place to be.

You only have one life and if you're not doing what you love, what's the point?

I think that we're all continually searching for who we are, and that's ever-evolving and changing.

The idea of playing a character for even two years, to me feels claustrophobic - only because I want to play a lot of different people.

If there's someone that I just wan to work with in the future, I set a general meeting and I say, "I'm a really big fan. I want to meet you. I'd love to collaborate with you someday and hopefully you'll remember that for the next time you have something that I could be right for."

I'm always looking for opportunities, even when they're not offered to me. I will have no hesitation to pick up the phone and call a director or call a writer.

You can change your fate. You can sit back, or you can go after your life and all that you want it to be.

I took 'P.S. I Love You' thinking it was going to be a little funny, and I ended up crying every day on that film.

I feel like I've had a really great intense relationship with every single Director I've ever worked with. I can't say there's one that hasn't been deep and profound in its own way.

The truth is, after Boys Don't Cry, I realized how few and far between the great roles are. I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.

It's how you look at beauty. Is it only an outward appearance with hair and makeup and a hot body, or is it something deeper than that?

All you have to remember is 'audition' is synonymous with 'opportunity. I mean, if you absolutely hate auditioning, do you also hate opportunities? That wouldn't make much sense.

I really chase the things that I want.

You're not always going to hit the bull's-eye. I'm going to make movies that work and I'm going to make movies that don't work, and that's just a part of being creative. Because really, I think if you're taking risks and you're pushing yourself and you're doing things that scare you, you are going to fall on your face, and it's not always going to work.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!,' by Dr. Seuss, is still one of my favorite books ever.

My job is about playing people. And I think once you lose touch with people, what do you play?

It's hard to find really original, compelling works of fiction, for women especially. I find that these true life stories about these women that I'm so blessed to play are some of the most compelling stories, and the truth is stranger than fiction.

What I love about making movies is that it's a collaboration. It's one of the most rewarding things, to create something and have someone show you something that you didn't see, and vice versa.

My relaxation has always been my animals - going to the dog park with them, going to the beach.

I think writing letters is a lost art, but nowadays it's something that means even more, because it's so easy to communicate in so many different ways. But I find a love letter can even be a little post-it note stuck in your pocket, with a sentence or a few words.

I love to travel. I'm a curious person.

I think we have a choice every single day in how we want to live our life. You wake up and you make your choice of what you want to do with your day that's going to help you achieve your dream.

I pretty much have made a career out of playing real life people.

I'm very glad that [the death penalty] hasn't existed for many years in the U.K.

I never know what my next thing is going to be, and I'm not out there specifically searching for one thing in particular. I'm just looking for something that's new and different. It could be a drama or a comedy, I just want to challenge myself and work with people that inspire me.

I look back and I look at all the opportunities that I've had to work really hard and really challenge myself, and I like to do things that scare me. I like to do things that I don't know if I'm going to be able to do. I need the help of talented people around me. I love that it's a collaboration.

Learning how to fly, for me, was so euphoric.

I'm certainly not very book smart, but I started traveling at 16, and it has enriched me in ways I could never begin to explain.

There's so much I want to do as an actor. I feel like there's so much more that I want to achieve and that I can achieve.

You have to be precisely in the moment in order to box. And I just love that. I just love the idea of right now we're here, be here.

I think about how I'm spending my money, and I like to spend on my family.

I had teachers who I could tell didn't want to be there. And I just couldn't get inspired by someone who didn't want to be there.

I’m always scared to death that I won’t do a role justice. But fear can be a great motivator.

Making a movie is you're really only as good as your weakest link, so when everyone's working at their best and it actually comes together, it's an extraordinary thing because it doesn't always.

I stopped trying to chase the perfect place to be, and realized the perfect place is with your loved ones and your closest friends, around the dinner table, over a good meal, talking about the past year and the year to come and things that you want to change in your life. You hear their stories and talk about things you'd like to see happen in the world. That's what we do.

I can remember crying on the set of Beverly Hills 90210 after being released from the show a few years ago

I had to fight my whole life to break out of my circumstances. That's just part of my makeup.

I cut coupons, love specials and believe in buying toilet paper and toothpaste in bulk. It's just who I am.

I haven't tucked a sock in my pants for three years.

When I was a swimmer and I would lose a heat in something I was doing whether it backstroke or breaststroke, were two of my most strongest strokes, I would look at how whoever it was that won and beat me and think, "What did they do? What were... What were the qualities that they had that I can incorporate into my swimming to make me better?"

This is my one and only life and it's a great and terrible and short and endless thing and none of us come out of it alive.

What do dreams know of boundaries?

I am a competitive person with myself. I always find new goals to achieve, new challenges to breakthrough, and I try and do something new every day. And I'm highly competitive with myself.

There's so much more to life than looking a certain way.