How do we love Meryl Streep? There's the fact that she's officially the most nominated actress of all time. The fact that instead of releasing a quote to the press after her 20th Oscar nomination, she simply asked her publicist to send out a GIF of her dancing. The brilliant Golden Globes speech that managed to take down Donald Trump without even mentioning him by name. Her performances in films like Sophie's Choice, Adaptation, Julie and Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, and, erm, Mamma Mia! The @tasteofstreep Instagram account that has added so much joy to our feeds. We could go on...
So, in celebration of our favourite actress - slash - all-round superwoman, here are 19 of Meryl's most inspiring quotes. Read and learn...
On ageing in the spotlight
At 48 you were getting out the shovel ready to go in... I'm out there on behalf of all the old broads and I'm proud to be there.
You have to embrace getting older. Life is precious, and when you’ve lost a lot of people, you realize each day is a gift.
Her best advice
Fear is a good thing. Fear is your friend. Everything that destabilizes you can help you.
Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else too
It’s good to push yourself and do what you don’t necessarily want to do, that if you’re not automatically good at it, you should try. Trying is so important.
On fame
I try to lead as ordinary a life as I can. You can’t get spoiled if you do your own ironing
On learning to embrace being herself
For young men, and women, too, what makes you different or weird, that's your strength... I used to hate my nose. Now I don't. It's OK
The minute you start caring about what other people think, is the minute you stop being yourself.
True freedom is understanding that we have a choice in who and what we allow to have power over us.
On self-esteem and self-worth
I didn't have any confidence in my beauty when I was young. I felt like a character actress, and I still do.
My advice: Don’t waste so much time worrying about your skin or your weight. develop what you do, what you put your hands on in the world.
I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to free myself from any concern with my looks as they pertained to my work.
On happiness
The formula of happiness and success is just, being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can.
On politics
Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.
On sexism
There is sexism in the world. The lack of inclusion for women in decision-making in every single institution in the world makes me angry. Why are the people making those decisions not half women? That seems wrong to me.
On her biggest role model
My mentor was my mother [Mary Streep]. [She] walked into a room and lit it up, and people were sad when she left. That, to me, is what really matters: who you touch and how.
I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world.
On making her voice heard
It’s amazing what you can get if you quietly, clearly and authoritatively demand it.
Women are better at acting then men. Why? Because we have to be. If successfully convincing someone bigger than you are of something he doesn’t want to know is a survival skill, this is how women have survived through the millennia.
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