Morgan Freeman Just Celebrated His 83rd Birthday, Here Are 20 Of His Wisest Quotes

3. My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don’t get it, I can’t do it. (3)

4. I’ve been living with myself all of my life, so I know all of me. So when I watch me, all I see is me. It’s boring. (2)

5. Sometimes, you want to upset an audience so you can engage them. I’ve done so-called Hollywood films, and I know that it’s all about wanting the audience to feel upbeat, give them a happy ending. But they also like complete stories. If your story’s complete it doesn’t have to have a happy ending. (2)

6. I’m not intimidated by lead roles. I’m better in them. I don’t feel pressure – I feel released at times like that. That’s what I’m born to do. (2)

7. I work about half the year. I’m just a guy who enjoys his work and enjoys working with people who enjoy their work. When that happens you get a bonding situation and if it come out with a good product, then that ties you even closer together. It’s almost like a great love affair. (2)

His Quotes on Making Movies

8. I don’t think that anything where you start off with something is an art form. If you start off with a blank page or a blank canvas or a blank slab or a blank stone, you’re going to create something. If someone brings it to you and says, “Can you enlarge upon it?”. (2)

9. Glory (1989) does what I think movies are best at, and that is giving you a lesson in history. Glory is a story that nobody knew. It’s American history that was completely ignored, and there is an awful lot of that. It is because the people who tell the story tell their own story. So if you ever ask, any time down the line, that’s always the film I’ll be most proud of. (2)

10. Stillness. It’s what I learn from the actors I work with. That’s all, and that’s the hardest thing. (2)

11. When I got nominated for the Oscar [for Street Smart (1987)], it put rocket boosters in my career. Since childhood, all I wanted to do was make movies. I love the stage, but I wanted to be a movie actor. (2)

12. I never think about awards or anything like that when I do a job. I was first named a best actor when I was 12 years old and it doesn’t really mean anything when you get down to it, because there is no best. I don’t get all that involved. My chest puffs up as much as I can puff it up but I am not trying to be better than the person I am acting with. I am trying to be at least as good. That’s how it works. (2)

13. Is there a movie I think I should have won the Oscar for? Yeah. All of them. (2)

Freeman’s Quotes on Life

14. I recognized that it had become a problem, so I just quit. I do have self-control. Once I realize that I’ve got to change something I just do it. (On waking up facedown in a doorway, not knowing how he’d gotten there.) (2)

15. If you wake up and the snow is knee-deep outside, you are not filled with rage. It’s just something that you’ve got to cope with. If you’re living in a situation it’s the only situation that you know, and you’ve got to deal with it. (2)

16. The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit. (3)

17. They say there’s no fool like an old fool. But blessings be upon my wife because I think without her, I’d be somebody’s fool by now. (2)

18. If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death. (2)

19. I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving. (3)

20. But I can say that life is good to me. Has been and is good. So I think my task is to be good to it. So how do you be good to life? You live it. (3)