Sandra Bullock

I think most of us are raised with preconceived notions of the choices we're supposed to make. We waste so much time making decisions based on someone else's idea of our happiness - what will make you a good citizen or a good wife or daughter or actress. Nobody says, 'Just be happy - go be a cobbler or go live with goats.'

My goal now is to remember every place I've been, only do things I love, and not say yes when I don't mean it.

My mother always told me, 'Don't get married. Make your own life. You don't need a man.'

I was afraid of being a failure, of not having the best time or of being chicken. But every year I get older I think, What was I fearing last year?' You forget. And then you move on.

There's no race, no religion, no class system, no color - nothing - no sexual orientation, that makes us better than anyone else. We're all deserving of love.

I was always longing to do, emotionally and physically, what my male counterparts always got to do. I just felt envious, every time I saw a movie that I was in awe of, and it was usually a male lead. And those kinds of roles weren't available. They just weren't being written.

You don't have to give birth to someone to have a family.

The rule is you have to dance a little bit in the morning before you leave the house because it changes the way you walk out in the world.

I've been trying to find the word that says what I need to be in life. 'Brave' is the only word. It's the only thing that I ask myself to be.

I used to get out of bed sometimes and feel depressed and watched a lot of reruns on TV to get over it. I should have allowed myself to be a little more human and not worry about trying to be a superwoman.

I haven't always acted or reacted in a way that made me proud, but I didn't make that same mistake twice, and I think that's what I love about adversity is that it always reminds me of what's really valuable in life.

I've made peace with the fact that the things that I thought were weaknesses or flaws were just me. I like them.