Elizabeth Banks quotes: the actress sounds off.
“If you are an ambitious person, you don’t wait for people to hand you opportunities. You have to make a way for yourself.”
“You have to work towards it and you have to do it. I’ve gotten very far saying I’m going to do something and following through. It’s surprising to me how many people don’t want to say out loud what they want. Secondly, if they do, they’re not being able to create it. You have to be able to create the opportunity in a way or you have to just do it.”
“I think it is really important to put out what you want so the world knows what to give you.”
“I’ll say that one of the great lessons I’ve learned in my life is that you don’t get what you don’t ask for. And I do think that, you know, there’s all this sort of research out now that women like to be asked to do things, that we have a hard time sort of raising our hand because we’re just culturally not taught to do it, you know? We’re undervalued sort of from day one. I just—I raise my hand a lot. I don’t always get what I’m asking for. But if I didn’t ask for it, I definitely wouldn’t get it. And I just feel like what’s the worst that can happen? Someone can say no?”
“Being a creative person is a really personal process so there is no one-size-fits-all advice; that’s kind of the first thing I’d say. Because everybody’s goals are different. Everybody’s talents are different. The main thing I would say is, start! Just do it. Keep going. When people come at you with the negativity and the nos, you’ve got to ignore it. Push through.”
“It’s okay to lose. Losing teaches you something. Having to try and going through the trials and tribulations to actually overcome, to get there to win, to triumph, that’s what makes life interesting.”
“It takes a certain kind of person to shut your mind off to the consequences and just try to get results.”
“‘Thank you’ is often an admission that you needed something that wasn’t being fulfilled or you couldn’t do on your own, so you needed someone else. There is also guilt. We think, ‘Well, too much time has gone by, and it doesn’t matter,’ but it does. It always matters.”
“The notion of just getting into something that you don’t know how to get out of, and hoping someone will come along and save you. That resonates with me and with a lot of people.”
“I actually think that secrets are just a part of human nature and that everybody should have some.”
“I am into girl power, and I’m very self-sufficient.”
“I am hoping to influence young people, and Twitter’s a great way to encourage them to lend their voice to the conversation.”
“The great thing about Twitter is, you get a lot back, and I read through a lot, and I want my fans to know that I do read a lot, and it’s why I do respond or retweet clever posts, and I’m constantly amazed by the cleverness of people on Twitter. I just think it’s a really great tool to communicate with fans and influence conversations and raise awareness about things I’m interested in, that I think deserve some attention.”
“I’m always reaching to find something that will challenge me and make me do my best. I’m always looking for challenges, I’m open to anything.”
“I grew up sort of lower-working-class. And I just didn’t want to have the money struggles that my parents had. You know, I could just… as loving an environment [as] I grew up in—and I grew up in a great home, a very loving home—but, you know, we had that stress. We had that stress in our life.”
“I am very ambitious. I am down for ‘go big or go home.'”
“I suppose the best advice I ever got—frankly, the advice that changed my life—came from my uncle who told me to go to drama school and study acting instead of taking a job, because he said the job would always be there.”
“I don’t think there’s one right way to do anything. There’s no one best way to be a woman. There’s no best way to be a mentor. I’m just trying to be me and be authentic and live my truth and be as inclusive and interested in other human beings as possible. I’m an actor by training, which means that I study human beings and human behavior. That’s what I try to do and what I love to do.”
“I think it’s important to present role models for young women coming up. I really do believe you can’t be what you can’t see, and representation matters. So, for me, it’s the idea of putting women in media in ways that present them as having power, being heard, being true to themselves, and done from the perspective of women.”
“I think people respond to me as a down-to-earth, girl-next-door person, because I am one of those people. That’s something I don’t have to act very hard at.”
“I am not afraid of much. I kill all the spiders in my house, and I’m planning to go skydiving.”
“I like to say I don’t have a fear of heights. I have a fear of human error. I’m very concerned about stupidity.”
“I am never embarrassed by something that makes people laugh.”
“I met my husband in college, and we’ve been together for 21 years. It’s the thing I’m most proud of in my life. We were trying to figure out how we could make our lives as flexible as possible and do something we both really enjoyed.”
“We have always dreamed about our life together. And we work together every day, and we have a lot of respect for each other on every level. And then there’s love.”
“The couple that trains together, stays together. Working together provides a lot of balance in our life, and it’s a way for us to see each other.”
“I’m a good role model. I have an amazing marriage, and it will be long lasting. I think I’m a good mom. I could run for office, no problem, because there are no skeletons in my closet.”
“I mean time management is a big factor in my life. I’m a very organized person. You can only do one thing at a time, so that’s the main way I do everything. When I’m with my kids, I’m with my kids. When I’m directing a movie, I’m directing a movie. So you just really have to fragment and focus.”
“I balance it by always putting my children’s health and safety first. Then I feel okay to go and do the job I love. It’s important to remember that I face the same challenges as many other working parents out there. Parenting is challenging any way you slice it.”
“Build a good village. I slowly had to come to terms with that I can’t do everything. Mostly having a child brings a lot of clarity to your life.”
“On the power of technology, the fact that FaceTime exists is amazing. I don’t need to even go home. I can just parent from here.”
“My acting gives me my self-worth.”
“As a producer, I really get to tell stories that I care about in a way that I want to. I get to shape them. I get to choose the collaborators. That’s really gratifying as a storyteller. And also, frankly, it’s really fun to create jobs for other people.”
“I’m very grateful to be in a position now where I have a lot more control to tell the stories I want to tell. I feel no obligation to tell any one story. I will tell you my interest mostly lies in telling stories about empowered women, but I don’t feel it’s an obligation. But I do feel like I am servicing a voice.”
“As an actor, you go through life thinking, ‘This stop is the last stop,’ so you just put your heart and soul into everything and do your best work.”
“I’m very genetically blessed; I cannot deny it, but I work hard at keeping myself together.”
“I do try to eat healthy. People ask me how I stay thin, and I’m like, ‘When you go to the grocery store, just avoid the Doritos aisle and buy more bananas than cookies.'”
“I definitely think I’m still judged for what I’ve done and that people don’t understand my choices, but I don’t feel I owe anybody any explanation. And, if my story helps people feel less alone on their journey, then I’m grateful for that.”
“I feel very lucky.”
