I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it’s not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
I think faith is incredibly important because you will become overwhelmed with what’s happening and you will have waves of grief, but when you turn to your faith, I believe God will give you waves of grace to get through it.
I really feel like my story in modern day times is very similar to a biblical story: you know, somebody that nobody expected, that everybody said couldn’t, and by God’s grace and power, I was able to accomplish a lot.
Grace Kelly was a very commercial model; she had no interest in being a fashion model. None at all.
I have loads of lip balm and lip glosses. Eve Lom Kiss Mix is one that I love. I also use a Charlotte Tilbury lipstick in Amazing Grace. In a pinch, I’ll put some on my cheeks as a blush.
By God’s grace, I’m not hungry for publicity, God has given me enough to fend for myself.
I really looked up to Grace Kelly when I was growing up. I thought she was just so beautiful and elegant. I wanted to grow up to be like her.
Grace Jones was an influence, because I was like, ‘These shoulders! These pants! Girls can wear pants and be awesome.’ That’s something I definitely embody.
It’s a different world now and as we see with footballers and everybody else, and the fall from grace of any sportsman, it’s a difficult balancing act now of going out and being nice to the general public and being very wary.
The Eucharist is an opportunity of grace and conversion. It’s also a time of forgiveness of sins, so my hope would be that grace would be instrumental in bringing people to the truth.
When you know in your bones that your body is a sacred gift, you move in the world with an effortless grace. Gratitude and humility rise up spontaneously.
I think everyone can relate to that fall from grace – having life change in an instant or having to stand for some of your bad choices, that feeling of ‘Nothing is ever going to be good again.’
The things I believe in now are grace and the power of human connection to change hearts and minds and the importance of civil dialogue.
Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved.
I wrote a book on grace, and grace is a free gift, but to receive the gift you have to have your hands open. And a lot of people don’t have their hands open, there’s something they’re grasping because there’s a lot of things to grasp in a prosperous country.
Hollywood is not known as a culture of grace. Dog-eat-dog is more like it. People love you one day and hate you the next. Personal value is very much attached to box office revenues and the unpredictable and often cruel winds of fashion.
I think there is a complicated side effect to overcoming evil in that we are forever changed by it. I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.
In the same way that I cannot be perfect and need grace for my mistakes, I also need to give my kids grace. I am constantly learning to be patient with them, understanding that they won’t do everything right all the time, while still holding them to a high standard, as their heavenly father does.
Shows are my saving grace. In between actual jobs, the only thing that keeps me sane is the knowledge that I can go up on stages.
I give as much detail as I do about the bad times because people out there don’t know that others have been through hell but then through the process of amazing grace. You hope that someone out there will hear what you have to say, and that it may matter.
Connected to the collective heart, you can be certain in every cell of your being that you are never alone, and you will experience the grace, guidance and ease that comes when you are one with all there is.
I don’t feel I was ever a ‘famous’ child actor. I was just a working actor who happened to be a kid. I was never really in a hit show until I was a teenager with West Wing playing First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. In a way, that was my saving grace – not being a star on a hit show. It kept me working and kept me grounded.
Everyone is flailing through this life without an owner’s manual, with whatever modicum of grace and good humor we can manage.
Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.
May the perfect grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be our never-failing protection and help.
