Jane Fonda Quotes

Beware of men who use words that relate pejoratively to females when describing the 'other side.

You spend all your life trying to do something they put people in asylums for.

I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of the things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm...very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families.

"Strong" to people means "real." It means you believe that's a person who exists, as opposed to some two-dimensional depiction of women.

When you know in your heart why you did something, and you feel and you know that in spite of all the controversy that it was right, doesn't matter.

Parents are supposed to give the child back to herself with love. If they've got duct tape over their eyes because of narcissism, it doesn't happen.

When you're told to be good, you have to get rid of whatever is bad. I sure identify with that.

I don't want to die without knowing who I am.

We've got to establish a Socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react. We must commit our lives to this transition ...... We should be very proud of our new breed of soldier. It's not organized but it's mutiny, and they have every right.

When a significant other - a spouse, a parent or someone you're close to - is dying, it forces you to think about your life, about what you feel about death. What I realized from my dad's dying was that I wasn't scared of dying. But I was terrified of regrets. I was terrified of getting to the end of my life with a lot of Why didn't I's.

As I started getting older, I realized, 'I'm so happy!' I didn't expect this! I wasn't happy when I was young.

Mostly actors are progressive because we are accustomed to all the nuances of human life, whereas dictators just try to flatten it all out. So we usually try to stand up to dictators like, well, we won't mention names.

If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist. . . . I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism.

I always had a penchant for falling in love. Every time I found myself without a mate, I fell into a state of low-sizzling panic.

When food becomes the enemy, every time we lose the fight we not only gain weight, but lose our self-esteem as well.

We all, in fact, carry so many people inside us; the only difference is that actors get paid for it, and we sort of spruce it up a bit.

We don't need to be perfect. We're not supposed to be perfect; we're supposed to be complete. And you can't be complete if you're trying to be perfect.

I see many more men who are feminist, or at least who have learned about life in the context of feminism.

Who am I? I'm a survivor. I'm a woman with tremendous inner resources and resilience. I care about people. I believe in 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,' and I live by that. I am becoming authentic, and that's important to me. I have surpassed both my parents in terms of emotional stability, happiness and well-being. And I'm a lucky woman. I've deserved my luck.

While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.

The vulnerability of opening your heart fully and deeply to another is terrifying, but at a point in my 50s, I realized that I had to step up to the plate.

During my first few weeks in Hollywood, I was told that Jack Warner, the head of the studio, did not believe that a small-breasted woman could become a star.

We're still living with the old paradigm of age as an arch. That's the old metaphor: You're born, you peak at midlife and decline into decrepitude.

Some people are surprised that the Republicans are waging a war on women, or that they voted against equal pay for women. I'm not surprised at all. In some ways, it may be a good thing. They're defending the patriarchy, which is a wounded beast! And wounded beasts are always dangerous.

The glow and energy of the healthy woman is the ultimate beauty, the only beauty that will last.

I spent a good deal of time going back over my childhood, my midlife, to try to understand who I was. We're supposed to be complete and whole, and you can't be whole if you're trying to be perfect. Doing a life review helped me get over the disease to please.

In my marriages, I'd lost parts of who I was because I was trying to mold myself into what I thought a man wanted me to be.

To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.

If you allow yourself, you can become stronger in the very places that you've been broken.

My mother killed herself when I was 12. I won't complete that relationship. But I can try to understand her.

Women are rising. It's going to get harder before it gets easier, but we can do it if we realize that we have the power. Women will always be the leaders of change.

When I was in my 40s was I simply produced my own movies because no one offered me anything. But certainly after 50 it's hard for a woman, which is why television is such a welcoming thing.

You can run the office without a boss, but you can't run an office without secretaries.

When you can't remember why you're hurt, that's when you're healed.

Ted needs someone to be there 100% of the time. He thinks that's love. It's not love - it's babysitting.

Physical fitness is a three-legged stool: strength, aerobic capacity, and flexibility.

Good enough is good enough. We're not supposed to be perfect. We're supposed to be complete.

I found that you're more powerful when talking from your soul.

No distractions. Center yourself. This is your time.

I was so devastated by my second divorce that I had a nervous breakdown.

I like to think both - it's not either/or. It's and.

I am still baffled by those who feel that criticizing America is unpatriotic, a view increasingly being adopted in the United States since 9/11 as an excuse to render suspect what has always been an American right. An active, brave, outspoken (and heard) citizenry is essential to a healthy democracy.

I don't think it's natural for two people to swear to be together for the rest of their lives.

You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do.

I left acting for 15 years, and I think it's really nice to have another life. I took too much for granted when I was younger.

It's about time we make the well-being of our young people more important than ideology and politics. As a country, we benefit from investing in their future by investing in teen pregnancy prevention.

What I learned is, we have to listen to each other, even when we don't agree, even when we think we hate each other. We have to listen to each others narratives. Not interrupt defensively, or with hostility, but really try to open our hearts and listen with empathy. I learned so much from that meeting. It was a very difficult thing to do and it was one of the best things that I ever did in my life. Look what scares you in the face, and try to understand it. Empathy, I have learned, is revolutionary.

My identity depended on men for so long. You can be successful and still have the feeling that if you're not with a man you don't exist.