For over 30 years, Julia Roberts has been one of the most acclaimed and beloved movie stars in Hollywood. Following her buzzworthy introductory roles in 1998’s Mystic Pizza and 1989’s Steel Magnolias (which earned her a Golden Globe), the Georgia native found her breakthrough role starring alongside Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, an unexpected blockbuster that would go on to become one of the top-earning romantic comedies of all time.
The 1990 film made Roberts an immediate A-lister. In the ensuing years, she cemented her status as a rom-com queen with starring roles in My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill, and Runaway Bride. But she broke more than box-office records: In 2000, with the release of Erin Brockovich, Roberts became the first actress ever to earn $20 million per movie. Her portrayal of the eponymous lawyer also earned Roberts the Best Actress Oscar at the 73rd Academy Awards.
Throughout her career, Roberts has exuded a friendly warmth and relatable ease in the public eye. Since starting a family with husband Danny Moder in 2004, she often takes periods of time off from acting to take care of her children. “The life that I've built with my husband. The life that we've built with our children,” she has said of her family life, “that's the best stuff, to come home at the end of the day triumphantly to them.” Read on for 17 more affirming and refreshing quotes on life, love, and fame from America’s forever sweetheart.
I choose totally by instinct. And the only time I've ever gone against my instincts, I've regretted it.
When I’m working, I work very hard. I’m ready. I’m on time. I’m prepared. I’m happy. I’m all in.
You can have very little from an outsider’s point of view and feel deeply fulfilled. As long as you have a sense of fulfillment in your life, then you do have it all.
The older you get, the more fragile you understand life to be. I think that’s good motivation for getting out of bed joyfully each day.
Everything for its purpose, I say, because you can’t go back. Things just happen, and when good things happen you try to perpetuate that, and when bad things happen you try to learn from them and go on.
I’m better for all the things that have happened to me, the good and the bad.
Deep down, we all know you can’t stand on the top point of a pinnacle on your tiptoes, and not at some point lose your balance, or get tired, or say, “OK somebody else take over, I have to go to the bathroom.”
Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. That’s your anchor.
You have to wear what you like, and not what you get talked into.
If you’re raising young humans in this time, and if you really want things to change and get better for everyone, you have to believe that it will, and you have to participate in that belief on a regular basis.
I think, as women, we fall into this place where we feel like it’s our responsibility to give everything, give and give and give. There’s nothing wrong with saying to your spouse or to your child or to your friend, “Can I get a hand?”
That’s what getting older is about — it’s about turning even more into the person your loved ones know you to be.
I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that it’s meaningful to me — so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with.
Fill them [wrinkles] in? You know how many good stories are in there? How many good laughs? How many great dinner parties?
Whatever happens is going to happen, whether you're sitting by the phone anxious and worried about it or not.
Even without anybody appreciating it, I'm still going to speak my mind, no matter how much trouble I get into.
Luck and good friends. Just believing in all the little daily things that sometimes go unobserved. They all add up to that moment of being right where you’re supposed to be.
Photo credit: David M. Benett/ Dave Benett/ WireImage via Getty Images
