Jodie Foster Quotes & Sayings

I was one of those avid moviegoers as a kid, and we didn't have video, so we went to see everything five times. I went to see every foreign film playing in my town. As times went on, I watched a lot less films. I have a different film school now. My film school now is my life experience. — Jodie Foster

A woman who struggles to recover from a brutal attack and sets out on a dark, psychological and physical journey for revenge and justice. — Jodie Foster

Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone's privacy, to destroy someone's sense of self. — Jodie Foster

I'd always need a creative outlet. But sometimes, I do fantasize what my life would be like if I weren't famous. — Jodie Foster

When I was growing up, books took me away from my life to a solitary place that didn't feel lonely. They celebrated the outcasts, people who sat on the margins of society contemplating their interiors ... Books were my cure for a romanticized unhappiness, for the anxiety of impending adulthood. They were all mine, private islands with secret passwords only the worthy could utter. — Jodie Foster

Caitriona Balfe, who is Irish, is also in my movie. I asked her to play her Irish accent in the movie, but her own brogue is so faint that I had to keep pumping it up. — Jodie Foster

Eventually this all passes. The public horrors of today eventually blow away. And, yes, you are changed by the awful wake of reckoning they leave behind. Hopefully in the process you don't lose your ability to throw your arms in the air again and spin in wild abandon. That is the ultimate F.U. and - finally - the most beautiful survival tool of all. Don't let them take that away from you. — Jodie Foster

It's very hard for me to get a new car. It's really hard for me to get a new house. It's really hard for me to move on from the things that give me stability. — Jodie Foster

How could you ask me to believe in God when there's absolutely no evidence that I can see? I do believe in the beauty and the awe-inspiring mystery of the science that's out there that we haven't discovered yet, that there are scientific explanations for phenomena that we call mystical because we don't know any better. — Jodie Foster

When I go into the stores, I pet the saddles. Until security comes and takes me away. — Jodie Foster

I guess I've played a lot of victims, but that's what a lot of the history of women is about. — Jodie Foster

Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock do romantic comedies. I do dark dramas. I do these movies well. — Jodie Foster

'Silence Of The Lambs' was not something people expected me to do. — Jodie Foster

I had a certain career as an actor that I think was quite personal as well, and had a lot of integrity, but I wasn't writing my own things or directing my own movies. — Jodie Foster

I look back at my career when I was younger and can connect what I was going through at the time with the characters I was playing. I see the similarities in them reflecting on my life. — Jodie Foster

All of the thinking and planning that you do to get there, and then, in one minute, in one second, it just doesn't matter. It goes out the window. You either got it or you didn't. There is something kind of refreshing about that. — Jodie Foster

I love European movies and I kind of grew up on European films. — Jodie Foster

I never know what's going to move me. I'm always surprised. And it's always a mystery to the people who work with me. — Jodie Foster

Knowing what paint a painter uses or having an understanding of where he was in the history of where he came from doesn't hurt your appreciation of the painting. — Jodie Foster

I wish people could get over the hang-up of subtitles, although at the same time, you know, that's kind of why I'm kind of pro dubbing. — Jodie Foster

Look, it's terrible, I know, but weakness really, really bugs me, to the point that if there is a wounded bird on the sidewalk, I look at it and I go: I think I'll just kick it. — Jodie Foster

I think anybody over 30 plays parents because it happens in your thirties and so that's kind of a natural progression. But I'm definitely drawn to it. It's probably the most intense, passionate thing that happens to you as you get older. — Jodie Foster

Being twenty-something is all about taking it in: eating it, drinking it, and spitting out the seeds later. It's about being fearless, and stupid, and dangerous, and unfocused, and abandoned. It's about being in it, not on top of it — Jodie Foster

I wish that I spoke more languages. I speak a couple languages, but not well enough to really dub myself. French is really the only one, and it's a difficult thing. — Jodie Foster

My mom was always late. It drove me crazy as a child. So I'm always on time - or early. — Jodie Foster

I like to be in a different place when I make a movie so that I can't really focus on anything else, and that is your world. — Jodie Foster

With 'Taxi Driver,' I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn't me. — Jodie Foster

I fantasize about having a manual job where I can come home at night, read a book and not feel responsible for what will happen the next day. — Jodie Foster

Casting is a long process for me. I take a lot of time. — Jodie Foster

I do almost all my movies in French. I dub them. — Jodie Foster

Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships. — Jodie Foster

There is no doubt that each of us is born an individual. Why is it then that so many of us die carbon copies? — Jodie Foster

I'm an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God. We celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. They love it, and when they say, 'Are we Jewish?' or 'Are we Catholic?' I say, 'Well, I'm not, but you can choose when you're 18. But isn't this fun that we do seders and the Advent calendar?' — Jodie Foster

I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God, we celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. — Jodie Foster

People say as a woman actor your career is over at 40. But then they told me I would never work again after I was 16. — Jodie Foster

Now, apparently, Im told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance, and a prime-time reality show. — Jodie Foster

Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable. — Jodie Foster

I conducted a bunch of interviews for Interview magazine. They actually paid me. I think I was probably 18 or 19. I was in college and I remember feeling, like, "Wow." I had a real job, and they paid me money, and it was exciting. — Jodie Foster

I don't have a burning desire to act, strangely enough. I don't know that if I hadn't been an actor as a young person, I don't know that I ever would have chosen this because it's not really my personality. — Jodie Foster

I was never the ingenue or the pretty girlfriend of Tom Cruise in a movie. I didn't have that career, so I don't have to compete on that level. — Jodie Foster

I cannot believe in God when there is no scientific evidence for the existence of a supreme being and creator. — Jodie Foster

Cruelty might be very human and very cultural, but it is not acceptable and it is not an option. — Jodie Foster

The world is littered with movies about people that are depressed that either did not come out or are not successful. — Jodie Foster

I think it's important that when people are struggling, that you not run away from them if you love them. Kristen, I mean, I look at the room tonight, you know, Kristen Stewart and Claire Danes, Jennifer Lawrence, all these young women that I worked with who basically were child actors like I was a child actor. And then I feel very protective of them, because even though I think I have managed to get through the process relatively sanely, I have my scars, and I hope to be in some ways a member of their family that's out there protecting them. — Jodie Foster

My earliest memories are doing commercials and TV. — Jodie Foster

By the first week of shooting, you know exactly where your film is heading based on the psychology of your director. — Jodie Foster

I'm not interested in being perfect when im older. Im interested in having a narrative. It's the narrative that's really the most beautiful thing about women. — Jodie Foster

I am the luckiest filmmaker I know. — Jodie Foster

I do think it's true that anytime somebody comes to you and says, "I'd like to be in your film," it's never good to dismiss them or make fun of them, because if they're passionate and driven enough, they very well might find a way to be in your film. — Jodie Foster

I like to nap. I do like to sleep. Sometimes I sleep in between takes. — Jodie Foster

I don't know if you've ever seen some of the Sidney Lumet movies, like Dog Day Afternoon [1975] or Network [1976]. They're real events that happen in real time, and there are all of these different characters experiencing the same thing in different parts of the movie ... I am so bad at explaining my films. But it's in the world of finance and the world of media, and how they connect. It was a big undertaking. A big, mainstream movie, which stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney. But for me, it's really just a small story about character and people. — Jodie Foster

I'd prefer not to act in the film I'm directing. I think, though, as an actor, you do learn how to turn things on and off quickly and kind of compartmentalize. You learn to accommodate the camera and the other actors, to notice where the boom is and where you mark is, and be able to repeat something a few times. — Jodie Foster

Books have always been my escape - where I go to bury my nose, hone my senses, or play the emotional tourist in a world of my own choosing... Words are my best expressive tool, my favorite shield, my point of entry...When I was growing up, books took me away from my life to a solitary place that didn't feel lonely. They celebrated the outcasts, people who sat on the margins of society contemplating their interiors. . . Books were my cure for a romanticized unhappiness, for the anxiety of impending adulthood. They were all mine, private islands with secret passwords only the worthy could utter. If I could choose my favorite day, my favorite moment in some perfect dreamscape, I know exactly where I would be: stretched out in bed in the afternoon, knowing that the kids are taking a nap and I've got two more chapters left of some heartbreaking novel, the kind that messes you up for a week. — Jodie Foster

What I didn't realize is how completely consumed I would be by my sons. I didn't know that the rest of my life would become so little a priority. — Jodie Foster

It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me. — Jodie Foster

I feel at various times in my life that I've been at a point where I had to choose between a death sentence and a life sentence. And I want to live. What do I do to live? What do I do to be vital? And the answer is always creativity. The answer is always art. — Jodie Foster

I don't think there is anything good about fame. 'Tables in restaurants.' People say that but, then again, why don't you just call the day before? Or go eat somewhere else? — Jodie Foster

If I make two movies my entire life, and they're two movies that - whether they make a lot of money or two people go to see them - they speak of me, then I consider them incredibly successful. I don't need to be Steven Spielberg. — Jodie Foster

I didn't have any ambition to produce big mainstream popcorn movies. — Jodie Foster

I make movies about people in spiritual crisis because it's a way for me to spend the time, the energy, the focus and the obsession to come to terms with my own spiritual crisis. — Jodie Foster

I'm a technician. I don't go for the get-into-the-role stuff. I read the lines and play the scenes. — Jodie Foster

I made, like, five movies while I was in college. I think they just weren't memorable movies. I've taken breaks as the years have gone on - I burn out every once in a while. — Jodie Foster

I've only been to Dublin once, and I had a great time. I got completely soaked because it was rainy. — Jodie Foster

I didn't grow up really wanting to be an actor. I don't remember ever not being an actor. — Jodie Foster

We think, "If I have more money, I am more valuable. If I make more money, I am more valuable." It's all sort of wound up with this problem that humans have with their failure. — Jodie Foster

When I think about what part of my college experience came back in my work experience, I feel like it was learning how to read deeper, learning how to keep filling the movie up with more and more resonance. — Jodie Foster

Going back and forth between the press and something like The Crucible must be really crazy and intense. — Jodie Foster

I've worked with Neil Jordan, who I really adore. We did The Brave One [2007] together. — Jodie Foster

Privacy. Someday, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was. — Jodie Foster

The best reason to make a film is that you feel passionately about it. — Jodie Foster

It's a skill that people are born with. Either you're a focuser or you're a multitasky person. I am a full-focus person. — Jodie Foster

I don't like it when reviews aren't about the movie. When they're about how much money somebody made, or who they're sleeping with, or if they got the job via some connection, or about how Fox is putting X amount of dollars into it. — Jodie Foster

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from. — Jodie Foster

As an actor, I'm attracted to drama; as a director, it's humor - because it's the story of my life, and I can't be that serious about it. Being alone is a big theme in all my movies, both as a director and as an actress. — Jodie Foster

There's absolutely no sort of acknowledgment or reward for this - except for the intangible of my kids growing up to be wonderful people. — Jodie Foster

If I fail, at least I will have failed my way. — Jodie Foster

I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path. — Jodie Foster

My definition of a friend is somebody who adores you even though they know the things you're most ashamed of. — Jodie Foster

I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves. — Jodie Foster

I can't imagine ever not doing [acting]. I would feel like I would have lost a limb. But I am older now, and sometimes I wonder who I would have been and what about me would have changed had I not had these experiences as a young person — Jodie Foster

There are lots of futurists that spend their whole life trying to figure out who we're going to be in 40, 50, 60, 100 years. That's the great thing about science fiction. — Jodie Foster

The movies I made when I was 14 or 15, I have a hard time looking at those. Those were the awkward years. I don't know if anybody can look at something they did when they were 14 and not wince. — Jodie Foster

I don't make movies because I love to act. I make movies because I like to make movies, and I like to be a part of that process. — Jodie Foster

It's a tough trick to be able to create an intelligent movie that has socio-political commentary, and also has the emotional and moving stuff, at the same time. — Jodie Foster

I was a literature major in college and that was my thing, books. — Jodie Foster

As I've said before, and I still hold to, I truly am the most boring person alive. And if there was a great investigation to be found at the end of the resume, it would be, the most boring person alive. — Jodie Foster

I don't know if I see myself as really an action hero, but I like doing physical movies and I like doing movies where the writing is very lean. — Jodie Foster

I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends. — Jodie Foster

I think an artist's responsibility is more complex than people realize. — Jodie Foster

I love the way L A. leaves you alone. I can go home, read all day, and nobody bugs me. — Jodie Foster

I read more than I do anything else, probably. I read about three books a week. — Jodie Foster

I'm really not a clothes person. To me, that's just work. It's the thing I hate to do the most. I don't want to be judged in that way. — Jodie Foster

This is the place where I learned to live this life, to curse this life, and to claim this life for my very own. — Jodie Foster

I don't really think I have the personality. I am not very external. I don't want to dance on the table and do impressions. So I think that the way I approach it is really loving story. That's my first love - the words. The words and the story and how to create images. I guess I come at that as a director. I think that's much more in my personality to be a director, so that's kind of informed my acting. — Jodie Foster

I don't like the outside world to intrude when I'm making a film. I like to either see my family or work, but I don't like to go out. — Jodie Foster

If you had been a public figure from the time you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, than maybe to you might value privacy above all else. I have given everything up there from the time that I was three-years old. That's reality show enough, don't you think? — Jodie Foster

It was a weird moment in my life and a weird experience [doing a theater]. It made me think, "Gee, I don't know if I ever want to do this again." And I love theater. I love going. I love the experience of theater. But I am not sure it's for me. — Jodie Foster

Boys are easy. I mean, there are just a lot of bruises when they're young. With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don't want to leave the toy store. — Jodie Foster

Being an artist is a way of saying, I am here, and this is what I stand for. — Jodie Foster

I want to change the system from within the system. And that means focusing and specializing. — Jodie Foster