Forest Whitaker Quotes

My view is that you have to deal with who you are. It's hard work, in a way, but somebody has to do it.

It's always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

I feel like we're attracted to paths in life that force us to look at our weaknesses or deficiencies as human beings. Not to get all deep on you, but that's how I feel.

I went to a motivational training course once, a course of self-discovery, and I found out after a week that my fear - it was not a fear of not being accepted - was a very violent fear of failure.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

Somewhere deep down there's a decent man in me, he just can't be found.

It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

Exposing characters and their shortcomings gives me great comfort. It's always great to write about someone more mixed up than yourself.

When characters change on screen, it makes you feel better about yourself. You think, 'Oh I change too, I'm constantly becoming a better person.'

Why am I the way I am? Well, I used to be different.

I think happiness comes from self-acceptance. We all try different things, and we find some comfortable sense of who we are. We look at our parents and learn and grow and move on. We change.

We grow neither better or worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.

They say that people teach what they need to learn. By adopting the role of happiness teacher, if only for myself, I was trying to find the method to conquer my particular faults and limitations.

I'm constantly trying to work on the person that I am and work on my shortcomings, and I guess I want people to know that it's ok to be a work in progress, as long as you keep trying to figure it out. But that search and that discovery is what makes life kind of rich, and it's what makes life rich... period.

I know the person I am, and I know the person I can be.

I can only be the madman that I've been so long.

I can't just suddenly become 'Little Peace and Love Jair'... I've got to carry on being the same person.

You can't escape from yourself, can you?

Flaws are really interesting.

The best comics enlist you to take accountability for who you are, whether you like it or not.

We're all trying to figure out on a daily basis what kind of person to be, aren't we? I am, at least.

Every fight is personal, but with myself.