Paula Patton Quotes

If you have the capacity to love, you have the capacity to love anyone.

A movie is painting, it's photography, it's literature - because you have to have the screenplay - it's music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it's a tragedy. A movie combines all those forms and forces you to pay attention for two hours with a group of people.

Before, if your phone was busy, your phone was busy. You had no cell phone. Now people work 24/7, their BlackBerry keeps them busy, and e-mail - and when do they have time for other pursuits? When do they have time to be politically active?

In my own life, there's no amount of success or money that's more important than your child being healthy and happy. There's nothing that can put a band-aid on that. There's nothing more valuable, to me, than your child.

The deeper you dig, the bigger the possibility that something could happen.

We don't really know the ultimate outcome of our lives. All we can say is, "Fate has brought me thus far. This is where my life is right now, and I can either choose to stay here, or I can make a different turn that will take me somewhere else." I certainly am an advocate of taking a jump off the tallest mountain and just hoping a net appears. More often than not, when you take those leaps of faith, something really incredible happens. It might just take some time. You might take a long, hard journey, but the end of it is usually a great one, I find.

My job, as an actor, is to entertain people. My contribution to society is to be a respite from everyday life. People go home and watch television or they go to the movies, and they get to escape their reality. But if I can do entertainment that also maybe can educate people, educate myself, move people's hearts and minds, in some way, and bring light to some injustice, that's when entertainment is at its best. And if somebody wants to get more involved in a socially active way, that's when you've done the thing that I've always wanted to be a part of.

Comedy is not supposed to be funny. Its supposed to tell the truth and then that's funny.

Becoming a mother is the best thing that's happened to me.

I really appreciate and respect the audience. People pay their hard-earned money to go watch you, so I feel like it's my job to give 100,000% of myself to what I'm doing.

I think the age we're living in is starting to get scary.

I try not to have too many opinions; I just marvel at the world we live in.

You just can't take yourself too seriously, especially in comedy. You shouldn't try to be funny, but you should try to be as honest as possible. The extreme end of honesty is usually what's funny. That's your job [as an actor]. You just have to let people see it.

I don't try to intellectualize characters too much. But I always think of the audience. I always make sure that my characters are likeable.

Once I finished breastfeeding, my mom's like, 'Don't take that bra off ever!' Mom, thank you. I wore a one-size-too-small bra for like, two years. It helps...! They don't fall, you teach them, you teach them to come back!

No matter how you look, we all hurt the same, cry the same, and feel joy the same.

I realized that what we do as professions affects how we act as people, big-time.

Sometimes I do yoga, sometimes it's kickboxing, sometimes it's weight training, sometimes it's Pilates.

A movie is painting, it's photography, it's literature - because you have to have the screenplay - it's music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it's a tragedy.

I always like the physical comedy because I actually do a lot of it in my own life, but not on purpose. I am the klutziest person on the planet. It's easy for me.

You just can't take yourself too seriously, especially in comedy.

Maybe at the core of me, I'm a survivor, but I don't do it on purpose. Sometimes, in acting of course with your performance, some of your own personal character seeps through. My performance goal has always been to perform for the audience. People pay their hard earned money, and so I always desire to give all of myself in every single scene.

If you're an actress and even one person knows your name, you're lucky.

The older I get, the more I'm surprised with life. Things don't end up the way you think they will. Unbelievable and unimaginable things do happen, and then you figure out if you'll be able to step up to the plate or not.

I'm an extremist. Either I'm being healthy and organic, or I want a big, juicy In-N-Out burger, I want it all now! It sure makes me happy.

I feel like movies should stick to a genre and give the audience what they want, and then surprise them with the unexpected, and not just do the same thing you've always seen.

I'm black because that's the way the world sees me.

The older I get, the more I accept and appreciate myself.

When you're in your own body, you don't feel great about yourself. I don't think of myself that way.

Making African American films are hard in Hollywood. We need to rely on a support network and bring more cohesion to different filmmakers, actors, producers etc. It's a very difficult business. There aren't a lot of Africans Americans or people of color in high positions in Hollywood that we can green-light films.

When people have eating disorders, they can't actually see what they truly look like because they're so clouded with their emotions.

I'm a physical person. That's why I like action movies. I like to get real into it all, and get real down and dirty.