Paulo Coelho Quotes

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.

There is no greater valor nor no sterner fight. He who would be what he ought to be must stop being what he is.

The Ideal is in thyself, the impediments too is in thyself.

The only history is a mere question of one's struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.

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

In football you have an adversary; in cinema that adversary is yourself.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

It's incredibly fun to play someone that you don't like. It exorcises your own demons in a way. It's cathartic. We all have things that we don't like about ourselves, little things. And I get to amplify those things and put them out there. It's fun and it has a cleansing effect.

I like being able to play women that are growing or aren't easy to love. Maybe they are really likable, but they're annoying because they're not tapping into who they're suppose to be. You're watching them, and you're like, 'Oh, why does she keep making this decision?'

You can't escape from yourself, can you?

Every fight is personal, but with myself.

You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.

There is no development of character without resistance, there is no growth of spirituality without overcoming.

I think the biggest obstacle I still have to overcome is myself, and just kind of struggling every day with what to do with the work and where to go next.

There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character. Everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything.

I try to serve the character all the time; this one took a lot of work and was consuming. It's like climbing up a ladder and sometimes you're afraid to face yourself so you make excuses; you avoid going to the top of the ladder and look in the mirror.

It's not easy to be Light when you've been Dark. It's almost too much to ask anyone. -Macon Ravenwood

Fight with yourself when you paint, not with the model. A student is one who struggles with himself for order.

On the field of The Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.

Everyone who has ever built anywhere a "new heaven" first found the power thereto in his own hell.

The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.

You are constantly battling against your own weaknesses to make a good performence.