“A lot of my friends are getting married, but I don't think that is what I need. I am under no such pressure that if everybody is having a boyfriend, I too should have one.”

“All beautiful things in this world are because of women.”

“As it is, relationships are difficult, aren't they?”

“Before I turned vegetarian, I used to often cook seafood or my favourite breakfast of eggs and bacon. Now, I love making pulao or rice with lots of spices and vegetables.”

“Even after 'Gangster' being a success, I was considered a B-grade actress and was a sidekick, even though I was good at what I did, and was jobless for two years.”

“Even when I was rebelling against my father, the point was to follow my own intuition and instinct.”

“Ever since I was a child, I would start crying seeing anyone in pain.”

“For me, to be in a place where I'm on the 'favourite' list of top directors I like, that's being number one. There is no other definition to me. It's not money; it's not how many songs you're seen in or how many clothes you're changing in the film.”

“For my life, I need to make my own choices.”

“Freedom of being alone is intoxicating.”

“From my side, there was no acceptance to this fact that I am any less than anyone around me. So there was a certain discomfort that I felt growing up that I am not seen as I want to be seen as.”

“Going vegetarian - and then vegan - has calmed me down, and it has also made me physically and emotionally strong. I do crave meat once in a while, but I find that spiritually, non-vegetarian food works against my emotional health.”

“Hits and flops are overrated.”

“I always wanted to be the person to whom people looked forward to give opportunities. As opposed to always being the person who wants to work with others and who is always the backup: where it's like, 'If nothing works out then OK, let's get this person.'”

“I am a very proud Hindu. The foundation of my personality is laid on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda or Sanatan Dharm or the Geeta. And if my religious practices or anybody's religious practices is given any kind of sadistic name, it instills fear about other person's religious practices.”

“I am an independent girl. I always put my work first in my priority.”

“I am extremely proud of my rags-to-riches story. It's fun to be a misfit or an underdog if you acknowledge your gifts and befriend your obstacles.”

“I am naturally slim, actually thin. So, for years I have been trying to get some curves. I tried eating food that would increase my weight, but I only ended up putting fat around my stomach. So, now I have made peace with my body.”

“I am not ashamed of anything - not my past, not my affairs, not my body, and most definitely not my desire.”

“I am not comfortable walking the ramp for just any designer. I am particular about who I associate with.”

“I am now in a position to choose roles. I did not have so many offers before 'Queen,' but now things have changed a lot.”

“I cannot approach someone; I lack the confidence when it comes to the guy I desire. I'm very good when it comes to matchmaking and hooking others up. But I can't help my own cause.”

“I come from a middle class family, and my parents weren't too supportive of my career choices.”

“I come from Surajpur, a valley in Himachal Pradesh near Manali that is named after my great grandfather Sarju Singh Ranaut.”

“I don't find anything upsetting or gross or degrading about fighting with a mental illness: Bipolar or Schizophrenia.”

“I don't find it humiliating when they call me a psychopath or witch.”

“I don't know if it is of any joy to humiliate people. No matter what, whether you're high in life or low in life, humiliation and such kinds of things should just be ignored. I don't derive any pleasure from running people down.”

“I don't know why everyone feels the pressure to look young. Personally, I hate it. I don't want to inject Botox and look young forever. It's living in denial and anything that has an undercurrent of this philosophy is bad for your growth.”

“I don't really give into all that philosophical talks that 'money is not everything.'”

“I don't seek validation outside, not even with the audience. Today they like me, but tomorrow they may hate me. I don't want to be anybody's role model.”

“I don't think there is anything unusual about my struggle. It's a very typical struggle where you meet bad people, and then you meet good people, and then you finally have a breakthrough.”

“I dread shooting with animals. I hope I never get a script with snakes.”

“I feel that we, as Indians, have a knack for loving a stereotypical, sobbing, sympathy-seeking personality. I feel that we need to promote quirky, cool and youthful talent. We have to stop propagating the sob-story angle of celebs, where they try to be larger-than-life. That is very outdated. It is so boring that it puts you to sleep.”

“I followed my instincts; I followed my intuition, and it paid off.”

“I had no work after 'Gangster' for two years, and my sister Rangoli met with an accident that destroyed her looks. My struggle with my parents combined with the industry not accepting me made me feel alienated.”

“I have a knack for choosing the wrong people.”

“I have been the struggler of the century. Fortunately, everyone loves the underdog.”

“I know the consequences of my decisions. I've said no to the biggest of brands. So when I say no to something, I know how much business I will lose out on.”

“I liked the fact that my father had a lot of expectations from my brother. I probably wanted to be that person who he could be proud of.”

“I need nothing from my companion. No money, no financial security, no emotional support, nothing. All I want is the freedom to be myself.”

“I really don't want to be known as a fashionista. I'd like to be someone more than that.”

“I schooled in Himachal Pradesh. I had taken up science and, initially, wanted to become a doctor. There are few career options for students of science though, so I shifted to Delhi and decided to try theater instead.”

“I think the kind of films and roles I do takes a whole year... I think it is justified. At some point, we have to come to that place where we are equally paid. It is a small step... we are headed to that direction.”

“I think the rejection - if it's taken in the right spirit, it can make you a better person. And I think that is what I've always striven for. If one thing didn't work out, a project or anything, it doesn't mean that I lose my own confidence. In fact, I give myself a lot more confidence and opportunities.”

“I think there are things that you look for when you're younger, and you think they are going to make you happier or make you feel complete. That's not going to happen, and it's really about living the moments. Eventually, you reach a point when you're at ease with your life and don't have any unrealistic expectations.”

“I want to make films that cater to the world audiences.”

“I was very insecure at the beginning of my career. I didn't value my talent. I would have probably skipped signing up for movies that I didn't want to do if I had understood that I had been accepted and people liked my work.”

“I would never be able to spend all my life in a busy city like Mumbai.”

“If a woman is super-successful, she is called a psychopath.”

“If you work with big stars, then they become the lead actors. It's not that I don't want to do films with big stars, but I would rather do the films where I get the title roles.”

“I'm my own hero on the sets; why should I work with other heroes? The Khans did not want to work with me when I started. Why should I work with them now?”

“Image means a lot. It is everything in the business that we are in.”

“Imagine: in the medieval ages, there was no evidence of how the history of mankind has been affected by witchcraft. But there is significant factual history of how brutality and sadism of mankind have been displayed in the most obscene manner in the name of witch-hunt.”

“In Bollywood, if you work with a superstar, even if you are a newcomer, you become a superstar. That didn't happen with me.”

“In India, it's a matter of fact that a girl child is seen as a liability. Probably the only expectation is that you grow up to a presentable young woman who can get a decent spouse.”

“In metros, girls are very independent, conscious and aware. But in the interiors of our country, where education is not given importance, they continue to be oppressed. But it is important for every woman to acknowledge what she wants from herself rather than going for what people expect from her.”

“In my film 'Queen', there was a funny moment with the bra. My director called and said they are blurring the bra. They said it is vulgar. Our director was furious about it. We are artistes... We see props as they are. A woman's bra is not a danger to the society.”

“In 'Rangoon', I play an action star of the 1940s.”

“It is true that some people are interested in the buying part of things... They want to buy everything from the movie reviews to the media net to the opinions and so on.”

“Item numbers are not my cup of tea.”

“It's not like what I do or what I wear is my copyright. What I'm wearing now also is an inspiration. It is how I saw it on the mannequin, and I just wore it, so it's in a way copied. But obviously, I wouldn't want to spend my life thinking about dresses. It is such a waste of life.”

“It's very hard for me to find any sort of shame or blame in my life. I'm not made that way.”

“It's very hard to live in an environment where you're reminded, constantly told that your existence just happens to be here... That you are not meant to be here.”

“Male actors get into production, share profit, and they don't take money at times but are involved in some capacity which is economical and resourceful. These things suit them; as they have made a place for themselves, they have command over the box office.”

“Many people are insecure of many people.”

“Modesty is good. But not when it comes at the cost of honesty.”

“Money can't buy everything, but it can buy most of it. Because of money, I could give my parents a comfortable life.”

“My ancestors are Rajputs from Jaipur, a lineage of the royal family.”

“My biggest asset is that I know how to learn, and that, I believe, will help me in the long run.”

“My father is a businessman, and my mother is a schoolteacher.”

“My man has to be more intelligent than I am, which is difficult to find. He should definitely be more successful than me, which is not so difficult to find. I'd be a fool to expect a better looking man than me, which is impossible to find.”

“My parents gave me the easy option that if you're going to go your way, that's the highway. You can expect no funds and no support, which I think was legitimate; that was a fair option.”

“My parents wanted me to be a doctor. So I took up science, but then realised that my heart was not in it at all. The thought of treating ailing people was very depressing.”

“My sister and I had jointly heard the narration of 'Revolver Rani' in Tigmanshu Dhulia's office. After hearing the narration, my sister was very scared and adamant that I should not do this film, as my character was twisted, neurotic, violent and abusive.”

“My views are very fluctuating. I have very contradictory takes on the subject. Dating is easier, while marriage is hard work. You see your friends having early divorces, and on the other hand, you see your parents having a successful marriage.”

“No one can guarantee success of a film.”

“Nobody is like Tanuja Trivedi in this whole world.”

“Nobody was my support. You have to support yourself, and I think that is the beauty of being a woman. You can handle anything and be ten times better than men.”

“Our society loves raw character; we love raw women. We don't love our mother because she is hot and sexy: we love our mother because she is our mother. We love our granny because she is our granny. We value her. We don't remember anyone's face from our childhood; we love our granny's face.”

“Physically, it is very demanding as an actor, and I don't want to put a lot of focus on that, but I think it is emotionally and mentally a lot more... It can completely twist you... We abandon ourselves for days and months, and by the end of it, we are twisted people which you make fun of.”

“Relationships can be very traumatic. But being in a healthy relationship can be very empowering.”

“Sometimes films might not work, but you as an actor should keep working. Because no matter how much you panic about how your film didn't work, eventually, when you step out in the real world, there are people who value you as an artist.”

“Somewhere down the line, I realised that dairy products were giving me acidity, so now I am a vegan.”

“Success is the best revenge. I always feel women should answer back either with their sarcasm or success.”

“Sucking up to a director means you are unsure of your talents. I'm not.”

“The glorification of sisters, mothers as the selfless Indian women who will do 'agni pariksha' and the one who sees her own betterment only in the betterment of their husbands and fathers, that has to stop. It's very regressive.”

“The kind of roles which you get, people identify with your roles, and it then leads to the kind of brands you get.”

“The thing about Bollywood is that you can't just quit it even if you have little fame. You have to stick around and keep trying.”

“There have been interviews with people saying they are jealous of Kangana. There are so many people who are jealous of my success.”

“There is a huge gap between the remuneration of an actor and actress.”

“They will always assume that this guy - an upcoming actor, what if he becomes a star tomorrow? He would not work with me then... so I might as well choose to be nice. But women are not treated with the same attitude. Women they treat really badly.”

“This man who was my father's age hit me hard on my head when I was 17. I started bleeding. I took out my sandal and hit his head hard, and he started to bleed, too.”

“To expect this larger-than-life, holier-than-thou sort of existence from us is not possible. We as much want to make our own mistake as a man does.”

“Tone matters more than words.”

“What can you do if they have slapped you with a legal notice? You have to reply. For all you know, they have taken you to jail or something.”

“What people see is just your career graph and the films you do. But that's a very small aspect of my life.”

“When I did these psychological characters like the drug addicts, the ones who were rejected and dejected, I started to feel a sort of melancholia which was very unnatural for me to have at a teenage. Then I avoided those characters.”

“When I left my home to become an actress, my father didn't give me a single penny. I struggled a lot, and they had no idea what I went through. My grandfather even asked me to drop my surname when he learnt I was joining films.”

“When I moved to Bombay, it was very harsh. I was nothing like what I am today. I couldn't speak a word of English. In England, people might be very understanding about that, but in Bombay, they're not very forgiving. 'If you don't speak English, how do you expect to work in Hindi films?'”

“When you are romancing a woman in a relationship, it should be poetic. It should have layers.”

“While choosing a fashion show, I take into consideration the designer and the collection. Then only I said yes to do a show.”

“Why should Bollywood accept me? I should accept Bollywood. I don't care if Bollywood has accepted me. I don't seek acceptance. I don't need to live up to anybody's expectations.”

“Women empowerment does not mean you create complex among men. Then it will take 20 more years to empower men. It is all about evolving as a soul, as a human being. It does not mean that you become a sexist.”

“You spend so much to buy these media net stories or full page ads to build perception... you can rather save this money and put it in the making or marketing of the film.”