Cate Blanchett's Quotes

It was only when I realized how actors have the power to move people that I decided to pursue acting as a career.

Look, I live in the modern world as much as anyone else.

Look, it's one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I'm vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don't know.

Marriage is a risk; I think it's a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit.

My everyday beauty routine is always rushed and pretty simple.

My kids don't watch any TV, but they watch videos and films. I'm sure they watch it at friends' houses.

Particularly at the moment, it's an incredibly optimistic thing to bring children into the world.

People love events - they love performances, they love music - and I think Australians are great entertainers.

Planning cities is a necessary but risky business.

Some ideas, like what you're going to do with your life, take time to form.

The one thing that all great cities have in common is that they are all different.

The word 'circumnavigate' is quite a beautiful word.

There is not a lot of separation between work and home life.

There's not a long, entrenched tradition of theatergoing in Australia.

Well, I've never looked upon myself as being a beauty, per se.

When I see daughters with their fathers I wonder what that would be like, although not in a way that immobilises me.

When you're a performer, of course you want an audience, but it's very, very different from courting fame.

When you're onstage, you're acutely aware of the reaction of a particular group of people, because it's like a wave.

You can't be trying to make a film that pleases all people, you know, so it's not a concern of mine.

You can't really achieve anything in three years.

I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head.Working with Martin Scorsese was an absolute minute-by-minute education without him ever being grandiose about it.

I live my life parallel with my work, and they are both equally important. I'm always amazed how much people talk about celebrity and fame. I don't understand the attraction.

I discovered early on that some performers live their life in order to act, so all their relationships are simply an experience that they can feed back into their work. Which I find vampiric.

I don't have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You'd be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees - I think a lot of it's imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?

I have the embarrassing thing where often if you're watching a film, you kind of go through the emotions and the thought stages that your character went through, but you sort of do it with Tourette's. So I end up often crying when I'm crying, and looking angry when I'm looking angry, so it's pretty ugly.

I've an enormous respect for my mother who at the age of 39 raised three children, and I grew up with my grandmother in the household. And so it was a really strong household of women - my poor brother! It was great growing up with so many generations of women.

It's important to travel and move and have a continual set of experiences so you've got more to feed back into your work. For me, it's a natural thing.

It's not the normal way to look at things but I experienced death at a really young age and because of that it's been part of my mental landscape that death is really very possible.

If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state.

Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character.

If you age with somebody, you go through so many roles - you're lovers, friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers; you're brother and sister. That's what intimacy is, if you're with your soulmate.

I don't understand a way to work other than bold-facedly running towards failure.

I think Pilates is great, especially when you can do it with a trainer who keeps you on track.

You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.

Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?

Don't you find that work, if you love it, is actually really invigorating?

I don't consciously think of how parenthood has changed me but I'm sure it must have.

Violence and racism are bad. Whenever they occur they are to be condemned and we should not turn a blind eye to them.

When something is a vocation, you don't really make a decision about it.

All cities do face similar, significant trends in the future... most importantly global warming and climate change.

I think that's what I love about my life. There's no maniacal master plan. It's just unfolding before me.

I'm one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset.

I'm so misunderstood!

My husband keeps me really honest.

There are certain things in ancient practices that are not worth adhering to.

When you're directing something, you absolutely have to be involved in all layers of the process.

There's an expression in Australia that's called 'Go Bush,' which means to get out of the city and relax. I try and 'go bush' to places where there's no cell reception. But, I don't get to do that often, so for the most part, it's just a state of mind.

An actress once advised me, 'Make sure you do your own laundry - it will keep you honest.'

Being on stage a lot is quite physical.

Every director works differently.

For me, I think the bigger something is, the more difficult it is to make it nimble and fleet afoot.

I feel like I've been marinated in Australian theatre.