Jennifer Garner Quotes
Actress
My mother is a big believer in being responsible for your own happiness. She always talked about finding joy in small moments and insisted that we stop and take in the beauty of an ordinary day. When I stop the car to make my kids really see a sunset, I hear my mother's voice and smile.
Beauty comes from a life well lived. If you've lived well, your smile lines are in the right places, and your frown lines aren't too bad, what more do you need?
I'm a peace-maker, I can fit into a lot of situations. I'm pretty easygoing. I have a lot of patience.
No matter what, it is very tricky and difficult just to be a good parent at all. I have a lot of help. And for that I'm very grateful.
But I'll never be one of those women who feel that they always have to wear earrings and aren't properly dressed without them.
I've had more acne as an adult than I had as a teenager. After weaning babies, my skin's gone totally bonkers. I didn't even know about dermatologists until I had weaned my first baby, and my skin was so damaged. It was just beyond. And then, I realized, there's a whole doctor who can help you with this.
Well, you can't be trying to achieve success of any kind in this business without accepting that there's going to be a flip side to it.
I do like having my ears pierced, because there's a lot more choice in pierced earrings than there is with clip-ons, and they're a lot more comfortable to wear - Sometimes I completely forget I've got them in and end up going to sleep wearing them.
I want flowers; I don't want to text. What does that make me? What kind of dinosaur am I?
I miss West Virginia very much.
My mom grew up in poverty in Oklahoma - like Dust Bowl, nine people in one room kind of place - and the way she got out of poverty was through education. My dad grew up without a dad, with very little and he also made his way out through education.
My parents started with very little and were the only ones in their families to graduate from college. As parents, they focused on education, but did not stop at academics - they made sure that we knew music, saw art and theatre and traveled - even though it meant budgeting like crazy.
I'm privileged, because I have a lot of freedom. I want to use it to make as warm and normal a life as I can for our daughters.
I don't have this fantasy about marriage anymore. Everyone says it takes hard work. Well, it kind of does - and I'm much more pragmatic about romance than I used to be.
I knew we were going to marry someday, but I was absolutely surprised when he actually proposed. And surprised he had bought a ring. I ran around the yard screaming.
I know I live a charmed, beautiful life and nobody wants to hear a celebrity whine. The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do and I know every job comes with a downside.
Women should take care of each other, not tear each other down.
I do think about aging. I have those moments of panic and vanity, but life keeps getting better, so you can't worry about it too much.
The wholesome is definitely intentional and drilled into me. I mean, we weren't allowed to pierce our ears growing up. We didn't wear makeup. We couldn't have layers in our hair, perms, or color, or manicures. My dad didn't think it was ladylike. My dad just felt like his daughters should be wholesome.
You stick to the script, the script is Bible.
I would roll up pennies to take the subway to work in Times Square. I was broke, but I was happy.
I feel lucky, though, because even when 'Alias' was popular, I was still sent scripts against type. I've never felt like the world only sees me one way. But yes, it's been really fun to be bad.
I will tell you what I can't abide - and I think the Internet has really created a space for it - women criticizing other women and mothers criticizing other mothers.
I was a ballet dancer and that kind of bled into musical theater. I was constantly in rehearsal for one thing or another.
I mean, any time an actress gets to work with another actress, it's like, 'Oh, there are two of us in a movie! How are you? Let's sit in the hair chair together!' We're lonely women.
I wash my face at night for sure. If I've had makeup, on I wash it twice. And now that I'm old, I use the Rapid Repair moisturizer, which has all the stuff in it - retinol, alpha, whatever, all of it. And I do use a Neutrogena eye cream, which I didn't used to.
I'm a pretty hard worker.
We do a lot of crafting at our house. I don't even know how it got started because if you ask me, 'Are you crafty?' I would say, 'No...' but it's something that we just do.
My mom was really vigorous about making sure that we saw things and that we questioned things. Education was so important to both of my parents.
I can definitely benefit from a self-tan, although I cannot say that I am the best at applying it. I'm just not gifted at those kinds of things! But bronzer for sure. Also, just using blush that has that kind of a sun-kissed color as opposed to a bright pink. I would rather have it be really sheer and just right where the sun would hit you.
My mother and father always supported my passion for acting. I think they just kind of expected me to move to New York and become an actress and have all these adventures.
I always, always meant to be on stage. I only ended up even auditioning for television and movies because I was understudying a Turgenev play on Broadway and was so broke that, when I got a mini-series, I had to take it and was so ashamed because I was such a snob.
In my teens, I was never part of the cool crowd.
I never use powder unless I'm about to be in front of a camera. I don't need that matte, crunchy feeling.
Going after 'the bad guy' has not been a real issue for me.
I think that it's not as crazily different, my job, from anyone else's, as people let themselves believe. I think people get wrapped up in their own idea of what it is, but it's really not that.
My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up.
There's an internal battle. I need to work, I need to work, I need to work and I need to be home with my kids and the kids win.
I do all my own stunts!
People have pain - they do regrettable things, they feel shame, and shame equals pain.
I didn't drink. I was never a big party girl, but I streaked. I was just in a naked frame of mind. I don't think I was the only streaker, but I might have been the leader of the streakers! And we just all streaked, all summer.
And now, I still really don't care that much but now I have music playing all the time at home, which is a first for me. Whatever. Everything from Ani DiFranco to Dave Matthews to Jack Johnson and Norah Jones.
I love being physical and acting at the same time.
I think that baseball games are like soap operas. If you watch five in a row, you know enough to get hooked.
When Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt broke up, I was dying to see something that said they were getting back together.
And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.
To become a classical ballerina, you have to move to New York when you're 12 or 11 and that becomes your life. I just wanted to be good in my company in Charleston and I wanted it to always be part of my life.
I'm still really close with everyone at home and their parents - and their brothers and sisters. I was so, so, so lucky to grow up as part of a community and I don't take that for granted. I try very hard to stay part of it.
I am lucky to have had an attentive, curious and loving dad and heart-smart, down-to-earth, gifted mother. They changed the outlooks of their own lives and have never forgotten the people and organizations that helped them dream bigger than their circumstances should have allowed.
My big sister Melissa, is such a stud and my little sister Suzanna, has always had a perfect body and big blue eyes. We were a force.
I hoped, hoped, that maybe I'd be lucky enough to do something on Broadway, in the chorus.
Growing up where I did, the thought of working on a television show or in a movie... that existed on a parallel plane, you know?
My mom has always said that the one thing she wishes she had done differently is have a job. She felt like the single-mindedness made her a little nuts sometimes, and she could have used an outlet for herself when we were little.
You can do a lot with Scotch tape. Almost anything! I love that you can hem a dress, and its an instant remedy in a fashion crises.
The rule with marriage is the less you talk about it the better, as far as I can tell.
I wasn't a woman who stayed tiny like I thought I would. I definitely gave myself the freedom to eat what I wanted.
I love the feeling of being on a team, rehearsing together, sharing a dressing room - I love that so much.
It's about getting the kids up and fed, getting one to school, getting the other down for a nap, going to the grocery store, picking one up from school, getting the other one down for another nap, cooking dinner... I live my life at these two extremes. I'm either a full-time stay-at-home mom or a full-time actress.
I remember, my mom didn't have any help, so if she needed to be somewhere after school, we'd just go down to the neighbors' and she'd give us a snack and make sure we did our homework. There weren't any latchkey kids.
I rebelled by not getting straight A's and not following the path that my elder sister did. She was valedictorian and is very exemplary in her way. I look a lot like her, so I just had to do the opposite. Not that I got bad grades, but I was all about performance and just finding any way that I could to be involved in any kind of production.
I never had a problem resisting somebody that I knew was going to break my heart.
My sisters both are working mothers. I understand that my being an actress as well as being at home isn't some heroic thing. That doesn't mean it isn't confusing or difficult - especially that question of how you find a balance.
I'm still conflict-averse. I don't like to argue.
I am the model middle child. I am patient and I like to take care of everyone. Being called nice is a compliment. It's not a boring way to describe me.
You're supposed to look a certain way when you're a celebrity, but I want to take care of my baby, and those two things don't mesh very well.
I wish I was one of those cute pregnant girls who wear skinny jeans throughout their pregnancies. But I just gain weight.
I mean, I didn't ever watch 'Gilligan's Island' and think, 'Those people are actors.' I lived in West Virginia. Hollywood just felt like this total other universe.
The outside world can be very tough.
My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy.
I certainly never expected to be in front of a camera one day of my life.
I have always been drawn to child-related causes. I find that people listen to me more when I advocate for children now that I have my own.
I just try work out at least twice a week if I can.
I don't know anyone who was never a geek, really, when they look at their own lives. I think that from the outside looking in, you think that you weren't necessarily a tragic geek, but yes, you did lean in that direction.
I try to eat in a way that makes me feel good. If that means a little bite of chocolate I do that, but I try not to use food as a reward for myself.
I wasn't raised in a household where vanity was celebrated. That just wasn't on the top of our list.
I am usually part of any disaster at a wedding if I'm a bridesmaid, which I've been lucky enough to be several times.
I danced six hours a day. My cross to bear is that my children have no interest in ballet. I think they could smell how much I wanted to put their hair in a bun.
We all have a responsibility to volunteer somewhere and I'm lucky that I get the education and get taken to places to see what's out there and see what's happening and to then be a part of it in hopefully an impactful way.
Why does everyone think they need to be a star? It's ridiculous. The celebrity culture is so silly, and the fact that people grow up thinking that it's something to aspire to just seems wrong. I don't mean to bash my life. I love my life; I just think it's not the only way to go.
I thought the divorce statistics would never apply to me. I was beyond heartbroken when they did. But I got up and got on with it. I also kept my belief in marriage.
I've loved football since I was in the marching band of junior high and high school and was the water girl for my high school's team.
I usually don't wear makeup, and if I do, it's later in the day if I have to get my act together for work for some reason.
There's rarely a big hat. I think all those things are great, but I'm boring in that I just use sunscreen every day. I don't mess around. I put it on first thing. I have it on now, and I'm sitting inside.
The one thing I really lucked out on is that all through my teenage years, when my sister was a lifeguard and everyone I knew was out in the sun all day - I was in the theater. Everyone called me Casper because I never had a tan, and everyone else was tan all the time. I think that was the luckiest thing of my life.
I really thought when I was pregnant with my first that it wouldn't affect my work at all; it would just be a baby that grows up on set. And I was absolutely wrong. For women, the high point of their career and needing to have babies just don't really go together.
I have a great deal of respect for any women that will enter the world of little boys of sports.
I am not pregnant, but I've had three kids, and there is a 'bump.' From now on, ladies, I will have a 'bump,' and it will be my 'baby bump,' and let's just all settle in and get used to it; it's not going anywhere.
When I was in college, every summer I would work for free at a theater.
There's just nothing like sharing the spotlight or anything else with your sisters and your mom. It's always fun for me to get my sisters dolled up and my mom.
I like watching Tom Brady, not just because he's handsome - I get handsome; I understand handsome - but he's a fine leader, he's a great quarterback, and I like the team. I'm not going to apologize for that.
We can be so hard on ourselves. And other people can, too - there's so much criticism out there!
The last thing I want to do is complain; I love what I do, and I know every job comes with a downside. But boy, this one's a doozy...You pull out of your driveway, and the paparazzi literally chase you, running red lights - I'm a really careful driver, especially with my kids in the car, but I worry they're going to cause an accident.
I'm so thrilled to get to raise my kids in the environment that they are in. I think it's easy just to imagine that all these kids are spoiled and entitled. Part of what makes me be strong with my kids is the fact that I'm surrounded by other really firm strong moms.