Sarandon Quotes & Sayings

To become a lapsed Catholic, first go to a Catholic university. — Susan Sarandon

He has a very strong vision of what he wants. — Susan Sarandon

My intent is to speak on behalf of those whose voices are less readily heard - children and women at risk — Susan Sarandon

I think where you get into trouble - for instance the mixing of sex and violence - is when you're telling an audience that this horrible thing is enjoyable. The suffering just gets out of hand too much. It becomes pornographic. — Susan Sarandon

Being on stage is a seductive lifestyle. My advice to aspiring actors is think twice. People sometimes go into acting for the wrong reasons - as a shortcut to fame and fortune. If these goals are not attained, they feel a bitter disappointment. — Chris Sarandon

The thing that's bad about breasts is that you have to choose between having a mind and having breasts. It'd be nice if you could have both. — Susan Sarandon

I think you have to be ready to switch gears and go with the team as a director, as opposed to superimposing your own strict idea of the story. There are very few directors that can micromanage and still come out with something that's living and breathing on a page. Wes Anderson is one of those . — Susan Sarandon

Like most parents in the US, they are trying, with a little help from UNICEF, to do the best they can to help their children reach their full potential ... — Susan Sarandon

New York is very user-friendly if you don't want to be in a car all the time. It can also provide you with surprises because it's so compressed - if you walk around, you just find things. — Susan Sarandon

It's important to just keep wanting whatever it is you want and fight for it, desperately. — Susan Sarandon

I'm happy to be considered desirable. I love it! — Susan Sarandon

I'm tired of being labelled anti-American because I ask questions. — Susan Sarandon

I adore Susan Sarandon, she's just so cool, and brilliant, and beautiful. I just like her whole vibe - off- and on-screen. — Evan Rachel Wood

At the end of your life, you are going to want to know that you made some kind of difference. — Susan Sarandon

In the theater, you're so much more in charge as an actor. For better or for worse, you know what the audience is seeing. But you can be acting your socks off on film, and then you see the movie, and the camera is on the other actor, or they've cut out the lines you thought were significant, or they've adjusted the plot. So much of it is out of your control. — Susan Sarandon

So I would hope they would develop some kind of habit that involves understanding that their life is so full they can afford to give in all kinds of ways to other people. I consider that to be baseline spirituality. — Susan Sarandon

I always had a problem with original sin; I always had a problem with the exclusivity of the church and a lot of the things that the nuns taught me. — Susan Sarandon

Everyone has a responsibility towards this larger family of man, but especially if you're privileged, that increases your responsibility. — Susan Sarandon

Theater for me is terrifying but much more rewarding, because you know what they're seeing. Film is all little bits and pieces. And you can do an amazing job, but if the camera isn't getting it, it doesn't work. And then other times when you feel you really weren't present, and then you see it and somehow it works. So there's a mystery, there's a strange collaboration that takes place with everybody. — Susan Sarandon

If you always have to be watching yourself and judging, I don't think you're as free. — Susan Sarandon

You just can never count on a formula, on a movie that you think is going to be a big hit, and that's why you do it. You have to choose each one for what you think you'll learn and the fun you'll have. And maybe the cool people that you work with or a character that you're going to be able to explore ... You just keep your fingers crossed. — Susan Sarandon

I just want my kids to love who they are, have happy lives and find something they want to do and make peace with that. Your job as a parent is to give your kids not only the instincts and talents to survive, but help them enjoy their lives." — Susan Sarandon

I was a voracious reader and the library fed my curiosity, imagination and my soul. I read by the shelf - biographies, fantasy - all and everything fed my dreams. Then as an adult whenever I would go on location the first thing we would do as a family is sign up at the closest library. Not only would we find books, but what was happening in that town, because the library is the head of the community. — Susan Sarandon

I wouldn't want to be 20 now. I know so much more, and I'm much more comfortable in my skin, saggy as it is When I hear young girls complaining about superficial things You're at the peak of your physical beauty right now! Just enjoy it and stop worrying about your thighs being too big If you're upset with how you look at 25, life's going to be tough — Susan Sarandon

When I tell people I'm a comedian they say, 'Oh, are you funny?' I say, 'No, it's not that kind of comedy.' — Susan Sarandon

Making love is like hitting a baseball. You just gotta relax and concentrate. — Susan Sarandon

At a time when everything seems so out of control and the people you've elected are bogus and there's so much random violence and hatred, it fills you with such hope and admiration to even be part for a short time in a community where people have connected to strangers to try to put out a hand. — Susan Sarandon

Children reinvent your world for you. — Susan Sarandon

Certainly, if more people were smoking instead of drinking, people don't get mean on weed, don't beat up their wives on weed, and don't drive crazy on weed. They just get hungry, don't go out of the house, or laugh a lot. I think it would make for a much more gentle world. — Susan Sarandon

I think sometimes what happens is that all of this feeling out of control manifests itself in trying to control your body; whether it's an eating disorder or talking about getting your nose fixed, as if that's going to be the solution to all the pressure. — Susan Sarandon

It helps me chill out and focus. — Susan Sarandon

We were friends with Jonathan Demme. We were all down on the West Side of New York, and I think I met Kurt [Vonnegut] through Edith [Demme]. And then I was lucky to do Who Am I This Time? [1982], which was an adaptation of his short story that Jonathan Demme directed with Chris Walken and I, and that really cemented the friendship. — Susan Sarandon

That's the thing about independently minded children. You bring them up teaching them to question authority, and you forget that the very first authority they question is you. — Susan Sarandon

With the most interesting directors, the cast comes together to make something magical that nobody counted on. — Susan Sarandon

When my children wake up in the morning they know they will eat breakfast, get hugs from their parents, go to a good, safe school. Plates are full and store windows are glittering. But at the same time the great majority of the world's children and women stand - no - shiver on the precipice — Susan Sarandon

In the U.S., they just want to know who you're sleeping with. — Susan Sarandon

Kurt Vonnegut wasn't a chatty guy, but when he spoke, it was always clear and very funny, in the way that he wrote, in a very specific kind of combination of word groupings and expressions that lived somewhere else. — Susan Sarandon

Now, Tim has been really, really busy, and it's been my job now to kind of deal with everything. And trying to figure out how we balance that, logistically it's a nightmare. But these little jobs make it much easier. — Susan Sarandon

It will be great when it's not such a big deal when a woman gets a good job. — Susan Sarandon

Do you really expect me to say gravity hasn't taken its toll? No. But as I'm earning these lines [in my face], I'm making an aesthetic choice. — Susan Sarandon

With the war and everything that's going on, unless you're Susan Sarandon, the best route is to keep your mouth shut. For me it is, anyway! — Robbie Williams

How you spend your energy is ultimately what creates who you are.
(On Beauty: Susan Sarandon, Vogue, January 8, 2016) — Susan Sarandon

If you can just see all the children of the world as your own, all the mothers of the world as you are, we can make a huge difference. — Susan Sarandon

A few actresses have all but set up shop as women of a certain age who attract younger lovers. I think of Susan Sarandon, Cameron Diaz and Isabelle Huppert. — Roger Ebert

There wasn't space to mood-up. I think Rose Byrne was just extraordinary. Talk about a character that could be really unsympathetic at times. She just jumped in these scenes that go from anger to hysteria to crying to laughing and back to anger. I just marveled. — Susan Sarandon

There have been a few little films I'd done like that that the studio just decided not to do much with, films like Anywhere but Here [1999] or Jeff, Who Lives at Home [2012]. Thank God people find them later and love them. I'm always really drawn to people who have seen these strange little films. — Susan Sarandon

It's a miracle when something actually turns out well because there are so many ways for it to go wrong. — Susan Sarandon

It's still not easy to find roles that offer more complex images of women. — Susan Sarandon

I hope they're present in their lives and feel some kind of empathy. I think a lot of the mistakes that have been made in the world have been through a lack of empathy. If you can identify with someone else and empathise with someone else, then activism is a short step away, she explained in an interview with Parade. — Susan Sarandon

I believe in using words, not fists. — Susan Sarandon

When you run into someone in NY it is usually a pleasant surprise. When you run into someone in LA you usually had a car accident. — Susan Sarandon

We stand a chance of getting a president who has probably killed more people before he gets into office than any president in the history of the United States. — Susan Sarandon

It's ridiculous that we continue to incarcerate anyone for using a substance that actually causes far less damage than alcohol. No one goes out looking for fights on marijuana. No one dies from marijuana intoxication. And no one should be jailed for possessing marijuana. — Susan Sarandon

It's really hard to find stuff that is original. You pick up scripts and in four pages you know where it's going and the same thing when you are sitting in a theatre, I just rejoice when something unfolds in a way that I'm not conducive ... — Susan Sarandon

The only thing I can talk about is just forgiving yourself, because I do not have everything together. And so I tell people: No, you should see my house, it's a mess. — Susan Sarandon

I'm not a politician, She says evenly. If I want to be one, I'll run for office. Susan Sarandon, whom I know and love, is a fantastic actress. It's her right as an American to say whatever she wants. [But] just because you're rich and famous doesn't qualify you to make political statements. I don't put my opinions out there to influence people. You have alot of influence. And sometimes I feel it's undeserved influence. — Reese Witherspoon

I hesitate to direct even though I feel I contribute a lot on a set. — Susan Sarandon

It's a very exciting time in the history of this country, to even see people responding to a different way of doing business and really wanting to make a change. — Susan Sarandon

I was very withdrawn and definitely played with dolls well into eighth grade. But I was the oldest of nine, and that grounded me in a way that I don't think I would have been grounded otherwise. So I was able to - or forced to - function practically. But I think, by nature, I was someone who lived in my head, in my imagination. — Susan Sarandon

Happiness is the true beauty weapon. — Susan Sarandon

I did study drama at Catholic U, but the undergraduates weren't put in productions, really, except as extras, and it wasn't a hands-on kind of thing at all. I couldn't afford to go to another college. And my grandparents lived in D.C., so I was able to live with them, and that's how I was able to afford it at all. — Susan Sarandon

One night I looked down and my rosary beads were glowing. And I realized that I did not want to see the blessed Virgin - I was terrified. — Susan Sarandon

How will the bombing of Baghdad, a city of five million, accomplish a regime change? — Susan Sarandon

It never really worked for me to have long arguments about motivation. — Susan Sarandon

You have to take away the idea that something you do is right or wrong. I don't think there's a right or a wrong; I think there's an "it works" or "it doesn't work" for the whole. And that's why you need a director you trust, so you can just keep throwing out suggestions. — Susan Sarandon

I don't think there's a petty system of heaven and hell. The love of God is much more forgiving. I'm not a believer in a wrathful God at all. — Susan Sarandon

The only time I've really been away from my kids to do work was doing Shall We Dance because they both were in camp and it was the first time in twenty years that I haven't been with my kids. — Susan Sarandon

My aunt had given me these rosary beads that were glow-in-the-dark. So all of a sudden I look down and they're glowing, and I'm looking toward the door and thinking, "Oh, my God, I don't want anything to come though here. I'm not worthy, I'm not ready." I didn't want to be one of those kids who sees Our Lady of Fatima. — Susan Sarandon

Somebody can be the captain of the ship, which allows you to make big mistakes. — Susan Sarandon

Do you really have to be the ice-queen intellectual or the slut whore? Isn't there some way to be both? — Susan Sarandon

I try to live my life every day in the present, and try not to turn a blind eye to injustice and need. — Susan Sarandon

I'm crazy about the Coen brothers, I'm crazy about Sean Penn. I love the usual suspects like Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep and people like that. — Jacki Weaver

In terms of our foreign policy, that's where we made a mistake after 9/11. Everyone's going, "Why, why, why," and there wasn't any investigation or learning from any of what we had been doing up to that time that had set us up. — Susan Sarandon

With the help of folks like you and me, Heifer International tackles the problem of hunger one family at a time with gifts of renewable resources - farm animals that are ongoing sources of food and income. — Susan Sarandon

I feel it's easier to sit in the backseat and go, "Oh, yeah, let's go there." You're not worried about getting to the destination. But the guy or the woman who has to get you to the destination is worried about a lot of other things, so my job as an actor is to try as many things as possible, be as open as possible, listen, and keep my heart open. — Susan Sarandon

As an actor, we are, in a way, a mirror of other people. — Chris Sarandon

So I think (Obama) definitely has convinced people that he stands for change and for hope, and I can't wait to see what he stands for. — Susan Sarandon

I had school debt I had to pay off. Sometimes I would do commercials to get me through. And so I kept bumping along like that and learning different things. I knew I wanted to get out on my own. I was just super-curious, and I was a good listener. And that got me through. — Susan Sarandon

9/11 just seemed to come out of the blue. And there were people asking questions, but then there were no answers. At some point, it just turned into, "We've got to do what we've got to do." And I think those are the moments when you grow, when you get the opportunity to try to figure out, exactly as you said, what price are you paying, and if it's worth that price. — Susan Sarandon

Unfortunately, when you're an actor you have to act. It's not like you can sit in your living room, your bedroom, your study or whatever and act with yourself. It requires having somebody to respond to. — Chris Sarandon

You create this situation where you are so dependent on each other. That's especially true for film. In theater, the actor has much more say, much more control, for better or worse. — Susan Sarandon

The directors I consider really great have the ability to recognize when something's going in an unexpected direction and see it as a bonus and be able to go with it, as opposed to locking down what they thought was going to happen. — Susan Sarandon

Ladies, stress shows on your face. Happiness is the true beauty weapon.
As quoted in The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets ( Kym Douglas / Cindy Pearlman, 2006) — Susan Sarandon

When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you. — Susan Sarandon

As a mother trying to raise kids with some kind of a code, an honorable way to solve problems without using violence, I find it interesting to live in a country where your government is allowed to kill, whether it's war or execution. What interests me is not who deserves to die but who deserves to kill. — Susan Sarandon

It didn't seem to have relevance, except in Central America or South America, countries where the church was connected to the fight of the people for economic justice. That's why it was so interesting to find myself back with Sister Helen [in Dead Man Walking], this new breed of nuns who were making a difference in the community. — Susan Sarandon

Really, for me, it's important to know who's pitching and who's catching - just what that scene is supposed to accomplish in terms of storytelling. That being said, on the day, basically what you're trying to get yourself into an open place. And if the character is in a state of anxiety or vulnerability, you try to find some touchstone. — Susan Sarandon

When I grew up in the church, we were praying because the Communists were going to come over and hang you upside down on a cross, and I so wanted to be a good person, and I had these rosary beads that I would sleep with every night, and I just wanted the blessed Virgin to be on my side. — Susan Sarandon

Certainly there are dozens of over-50 actresses who look great: Sophia Loren, Susan Sarandon, Ursula Andress, Stefanie Powers, Raquel Welch, Barbara Eden, Joanna Lumley, Linda Gray - the list is endless, and these are just the actresses! I have many friends in their 60s, 70s and 80s, not in the limelight, but who all look absolutely stunning. — Joan Collins

I'll always rather be in a ship that's got a captain that has some vision. — Susan Sarandon

What distinguishes the talented person who makes it from the person who has even more talent but doesn't get ahead? Look at the aspiring actors waiting tables in New York, as an example: Many of them are probably no less gifted than stars like Robert DeNiro and Susan Sarandon. Part of what constitutes success is timing and chance. But most of us have to create our own opportunities and be prepared to jump when we see a big one others can't see. It's one thing to dream, but when the moment is right, you've got to be willing to leave what's familiar and go out to find your own sound. That's what I did in 1985. If I hadn't, Starbucks wouldn't be what it is today. — Howard Schultz

Sometimes when you have to go into something, unless you're gifted and can just turn it on and off like a jukebox, you find someplace where there's nothing going on to get yourself into whatever state your character is entering into. — Susan Sarandon

I'm a native New Yorker. Everything to do with New York feels like my family. — Susan Sarandon

The trouble with being an activist is you end up like Eve and you get kicked out of the Garden of Eden. You know, Eve was the first person who thought for herself. And she still gets a bad rap. I named my daughter after her. — Susan Sarandon

I hate the assumption that once you're committed to someone you stop treating each other like individuals. I like getting up knowing I am choosing to be with that person. — Susan Sarandon

I think I'm an actor because I have very strong imagination and empathy. I never studied acting, but those two qualities are exactly the qualities that make for an activist. — Susan Sarandon

Never root for a team whose uniforms have elastic stretch waistbands. — Susan Sarandon

Knowledge is the key to stopping the spread of AIDS. Yet millions of children are missing an education. Missing their teachers who have died of the disease. Missing from class as they stay home to care for their dying mothers and fathers. Children are missing your support. United for Children. Unite against AIDS. — Susan Sarandon

I've always had a really developed sense of justice. As a child, I would rotate my dolls' dresses for fear that they might come alive at midnight and one of them would always have the best dress on. Whatever it was that made me worry about my dolls I suppose has paid off in my career because, really, an actor is all about empathy and imagination. And those are the cornerstones of activism. — Susan Sarandon

By the time I went to the Catholic University of America, which was the time the priests were all leaving with the nuns, the more I studied about the Bible and how it came about, the more I lost my faith. — Susan Sarandon