Quotes from Charlize Theron

I grew up in South Africa and I would look at maps and we were at the bottom of the world. There was this whole thing up there. I was always reading encyclopedias about the world. So travel was something I was always attracted to.

There's only so much you can do, but if somebody doesn't give you a chance there is nothing you can do.

I don't think you can create anything interesting from a comfort zone. You have to work from a place of fear and failure.

You get yourself out there and you work hard, and you hope that word of mouth carries and one day somebody will actually step up to the plate and say, 'I believe that you can do this.'

I've always been very aware of balance and, even before I had a child, my life always takes priority to my work.

I like what I do, and I'm very fortunate now to be in a very nice place. Which is that I don't have to work anymore. So the work that I do now is purely because I really want to.

I like hard work. I like putting the effort towards it and then being able to look at it and go, "All right, I did that."

I think substitution is a huge part of acting, but I don't personalise my work that much.

When I find something that I really like and I can get it off, then I put my time and energy into that. It is a lot of work....

Countries and states which have capital punishment have a much higher rate of murder and crime than countries that do not, so that makes sense to me, and the moral question - I struggle with it morally.

You are only as great as the opportunities that are given to you.

I always knew I would adopt. Always.

I mean, I'm new but I've always been very interested in film making process and I've been lucky enough to work with film makers in my past that have been very encouraging to let me hang around. I get so emotionally vested - that the producer part of me was natural.

I was going to go to Macchu Picchu and then I just ended up working the whole year.

I've always known I wanted a family.

Blade Runner was an incredibly influential movie, in terms of the way that it envisioned what the future was going to look like.