I believe there's fate, and then you have personal choice. I believe we have the ability to change our fate.
— Paula Patton
For me, anything that you take on, you want to be challenged. That's what makes the job exciting.
I think what my 42 years of life has given me is just how important it is to live your own life.
I just had this moment where I was sitting at my desk, and I realized what it was that I'd been wanting to do since I was a little girl - and that was act.
I want a man, but I want a man that also wants to embrace his inner child.
I always like the physical comedy because I actually do a lot of it in my own life, but not on purpose. I am the klutziest person on the planet.
I don't know, I don't enjoy the business bit of it at all. Anything that's not the acting. It's all sort of like pulling teeth.
Like everybody, I've stayed up at night regretting things - Why did I do that, say that - but at the end of the day, I really do believe everything happens for a reason.
I'm black because that's the way the world sees me.
As a little girl I always dreamed of having a cosmetics contract, which was the cherry on top of 'making it' in my opinion.
I try not to have too many opinions; I just marvel at the world we live in.
First off let me say, I've wanted to be an actress since I was a little girl.
The older I get, the more I'm surprised with life. Things don't end up the way you think they will.
In my mind, nobody goes to the movies to go to school.
There's one person that you would give up your life for, and that's your child.
I like the idea of bringing people together and making great entertainment.
I feel like movies should stick to a genre and give the audience what they want, and then surprise them with the unexpected and not just do the same thing you've always seen. But of course, you're gonna see some of the same things you've seen before. It's part of the deal.
I've always wanted to do a romantic comedy.
I've always loved movies and loved the idea of playing make-believe. That was my favorite game, growing up as a child, was make-believe, and to be able to do it as an adult is awesome.
Sometimes I do yoga, sometimes it's kickboxing, sometimes it's weight training, sometimes it's Pilates.
I love cola.
If you're an actress and even one person knows your name, you're lucky.
I think the age we're living in is starting to get scary.
Making African American films are hard in Hollywood. We need to rely on a support network and bring more cohesion to different filmmakers, actors, producers etc. It's a very difficult business. There aren't a lot of Africans Americans or people of color in high positions in Hollywood that we can green-light films.
In my own life, there's no amount of success or money that's more important than your child being healthy and happy. There's nothing that can put a band-aid on that.
You can't care what anybody else thinks - even though your life is out there maybe for a bit of public consumption.
I'm not in a mood to fight for things. I feel excited about my career, and I really feel like anything's possible and within my reach.
I want to be inspired, and I want to hopefully do work that moves people as well.
I've got more bruises and scars on my legs than should be there. And I'm a physical person. That's why I like action movies. I like to get real into it all and get real down and dirty.
At the end of the day, having a partner in crime for life is so amazing and special, when it's real and genuine, that it's worth taking the risk. And you are going to get hurt; trust me - I know! I've been hurt a couple times - maybe more than a couple times. But you gotta pick yourself back up and give it another chance.
What I love most is the art, is making art, acting and being on set, and being a part of the process of making a movie.
The older I get, the more I accept and appreciate myself.
If you have the capacity to love, you have the capacity to love anyone.
A movie is painting, it's photography, it's literature - because you have to have the screenplay - it's music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it's a tragedy. A movie combines all those forms and forces you to pay attention for two hours with a group of people.
Becoming a mother is the best thing that's happened to me.
