Hilary Swank

Hilary:One thing I've learned, you never know where life is taking you, but it's taking you.

Hilary: We have all had a time in our life when we needed somebody to believe in us, or we finally had someone who believed in us that changed our lives. If you don't have it at home or in your family life, hopefully you can find that in a teacher.

Hilary: (Maggie Fitzgerald is the character she played in "Million Dollar Baby") I think beauty is all relative. It's subjective. To say that Maggie Fitzgerald wasn't pretty -- to some people, she might've been. People say the hair, makeup and pretty clothes make a pretty girl. I just don't see it that way.

Hilary: (on her divorce from husband, Chad Lowe) That's life. Millions of men and women fall in love, get married and then get divorced. If what happened to me helps someone realize they're in a great relationship and to hold the person closer, then do it. If it makes someone realize they're in an unhealthy relationship that is making them both unhappy, then it's not the end of the world.

Hilary: (upon accepting her second Oscar [for "Million Dollar Baby"]) I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.

Hilary: I'm not a very complicated person. I don't feel like I need a lot of things to make me happy. I feel like – part of that is my upbringing, not needing a lot of things around you. It's the truth. It really is.

Hilary: I think everyone has a gift. You just have to be able to find it and follow your calling. People are afraid to do that. Some people are afraid of greatness, of success. And other people are afraid if they try and fail and that was their one big dream, then what do they have left?

Hilary: I believe in a higher power. I wasn't baptized or raised with an organized religion, but it's definitely interesting. Part of my job as an actor that is so great, is that I get to read and learn about all different walks and types of life and different ways of thinking and it certainly makes me more open minded.

Hilary: I find in this e-mail and texting age that getting a hand-written letter is even more special. I think writing letters is a lost art, but nowadays it's something that means even more, because it's so easy to communicate in so many different ways.

Hilary: Every role you do, you're pigeonholed by your last role. For a really creative business, sometimes it doesn't feel so creative.

Hilary: I am a lay-it-on-the-table kind of girl. No nonsense. I'd rather have honest relationships, because life is too short to beat around the bush. Honesty shows that you really care about someone. I live by that.

Hilary: That's the beauty of life. You're constantly trying to figure it out and go with it. And sometimes you're thrown into a tailspin and sometimes you're not. It's how you choose to deal with the tailspin and how you choose to deal when it goes well.

Hilary: I'm really lucky in that I have gotten to be a part of such wonderful films where the roles and the films speak to me in a really profound way.

Hilary: I think that any time you start concerning yourself with what people think you're going to fail, because you're never going to please everybody. If you try to make everybody happy you might as well quit.

Hilary: I really believe in mind over matter. I am an optimist, to the point where there are people in my life who say I am naive.