Michelle Rodriguez Quotes

Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.

I must be more sensible and realize that at my age, illusions are hardly permitted and they will always destroy me.

Experience is what really happens to you in the long run; the truth that finally overtakes you.

Death created the modern American union, not just by ensuring national survival, but by shaping enduring national structures and commitments. The work of death was Civil War America's most fundamental and most demanding undertaking.

Learning lessons is a little like reaching maturity. You're not suddenly more happy, wealthy, or powerful, but you understand the world around you better, and you're at peace with yourself. Learning life's lessons is not about making your life perfect, but about seeing life as it was meant to be.

But romantic vision can also lead one away from certain very hard, ugly truths about life that are important to know.

Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow's homework.

I think childhood is, generally speaking, a preparation for disappointment.

The myth that young people should leave the nest at 18, never to return, started with iconic American Benjamin Franklin.

It is inevitable that many ideas of the young mind will later have to give way to the hard realities of life.

Seeing my parents makes me realise that life is not a fairy tale.

I don't write about adolescence. I write about war. For adolescents.

I think part of being an adult is leaving the fairytale behind.

I had to grow up fast because we know it's not all fairy tales out there; it's full of rubbish.

As I got older, I realized that my life experience, what I really had, was always going to be more valuable than what I pretended to have.

Perhaps if all the peoples of the world understand what war really means, we would eliminate it.

As a child, I thought, 'Once I am a grown-up, there will be no more fear, no more worries,' and it turns out that's not true.

Success is never going to come in the way your teenage self sees it.

When you're younger, love is this magic thing where the heavens open up. You live 40 years past that, you realize sometimes the heavens close down.

Hiding my age won't make me younger. It would be stupid to not accept the fact.

If war teaches you anything, it is an appreciation of being alive.

As I grow older, I hope I can fully embody my grandmother's remarkable peace.

When you are young, you need to know the reality because when you are in your bubble, you believe that, always, all you do is right. And sometimes you need people who say, 'Hey, come on, what happened with you?'

When you come to Montgomery, you see fifty-nine monuments and memorials, all about the Civil War, all about Confederate leaders and generals. We have lionized these people, and we have romanticized their courage and their commitment and their tenacity, and we have completely eliminated the reality that created the Civil War.

It seems like a cliche, but you do grow up a lot faster when you travel a lot, go through things like this interview, spend time away from home and hang around with other actors. It's inevitable that you're not going to have a so-called normal childhood.