1.
When you have the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside your home, the only thing you can control is how you respond publicly.
Portia de Rossi
2.
There's a fine line between being private and being ashamed.
Portia de Rossi
3.
Everyone is their own kind of lesbian. To think there's a certain way to dress or present yourself in the world is just one more stereotype we have to fit into.
Portia de Rossi
4.
Life can take so many twists and turns. You can’t ever count yourself out. Even if you’re really afraid at some point, you can’t think that there’s no room for you to grow and do something good with your life.
Portia de Rossi
5.
Just look at all the awards shows now. It has turned into a catwalk. You have to be wearing a certain designer, a certain dress, and everyone's critiquing.
Portia de Rossi
6.
Average. It was the worst, most disgusting word in the English language. Nothing meaningful or worthwhile ever came from that word.
Portia de Rossi
7.
I've had so many interviews where the last question is, Are you gay? I had to find very creative ways to say that I was gay, but that I wasn't going to talk about it.
Portia de Rossi
8.
And I somehow always felt less lonely when I was completely alone.
Portia de Rossi
9.
If your self-esteem really does depend on how you look you're always going to be insecure. There's no way you can get around it because you are going to age. Even if you get that perfect body you're going to get older and older and older. You can't avid it. So you have to somehow, at some point, take control and sift the focus and decide who you are, what you can contribute to the world, what you do and say, is so much more important than how you look.
Portia de Rossi
10.
Most important, in order to find real happiness, you must learn to love yourself for the totality of who you are and not just what you look like.
Portia de Rossi
11.
My sexuality is a part of me that I really like. But it's not the totality of me.
Portia de Rossi
12.
I finally understood that by being on a perpetual diet, I had practiced a "disordered" form of eating my whole life. I restricted when I was hungry and in need of nutrition and binged when I was so grotesquely full I couldn't be comfortable in any position by lying down. Diets that tell people what to eat or when to eat are the practices inbetween. And dieting, I discovered, was another form of disordered eating, just as anorexia and bulimia similarly disrupt the natural order of eating.
Portia de Rossi
13.
My decision not to eat animals anymore was paramount to my growth as a spiritual person. It made me aware of greed and made me more sensitive to cruelty. It made me feel like I was contributing to making the world better and that I was connected to everything around me. I felt like I was part of the whole by respecting every living thing rather than using it and destroying it by living unconsciously. Healing comes from love. And loving every living thing in turn helps you love yourself.
Portia de Rossi
14.
True nobility isn't about being better than anyone else; it's about being better than you used to be.
Portia de Rossi
15.
I didn't choose the fact that I was gay, but I did choose whether to live my life as a gay woman-that was the terrifying thing for me. Especially being a gay actress.
Portia de Rossi
16.
Reality TV now doesn't feel reality TV when it started. The line between reality and fiction is blurred. So many of these people are phony or shallow, in their own right. If you've ever watched any of The Real Housewives, or those types of shows, they're all performing. Even though they're real people, they're performing.
Portia de Rossi
17.
Restriction generates yearning. You want what you cannot have.
Portia de Rossi
18.
My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I'd deal with the other stuff later.
Portia de Rossi
19.
I began to see myself as someone who can help others understand diversity rather than feeling like a social outcast. Ellen taught me to not care about other people's opinions. She taught me to be truthful. She taught me to be free. I began to live my life in love and complete acceptance. For the first time I had truly accepted myself.
Portia de Rossi
20.
If I was 14 and knew some gay people, I wouldn't nearly have had the struggle I had. Our world is definitely changing.
Portia de Rossi
21.
The diet industry is making a lot of money selling us fad diets, nonfat foods full of chemicals, gym memberships, and pills while we lose a piece of our self-esteem every time we fail another diet or neglect to use the gym membership we could barely afford.
Portia de Rossi
22.
I'm living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.
Portia de Rossi
23.
When I was anorexic it just seemed like I literally wanted to disappear. And now I would like to reappear.
Portia de Rossi
24.
If you've looked at all the glamour magazines lately, all the covers are actresses. If they are on those covers, they are going to try to emulate models. That's just the way it is.
Portia de Rossi
25.
I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying!
Portia de Rossi
26.
The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it. But I didn't really have the courage to talk about it. I was thinking, The people who need to know I'm gay know.
Portia de Rossi
27.
I married him for a green card. We had a really great, caring relationship; it just obviously wasn't right for me.
Portia de Rossi
28.
I don't even like watching sex scenes in movies. I have a slight prudish side to me.
Portia de Rossi
29.
I love being able to wear dresses and clothes that make me feel feminine and beautiful, and I love the fact that I don't have to all the time; I can wear a tank and jeans.
Portia de Rossi
30.
You live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, I don't think you are gay. It's enough to drive you crazy.
Portia de Rossi
31.
Supermodels are over, and the new picture girl has become the television actress.
Portia de Rossi
32.
I want young people to see me and think you can be feminine and smart and successful, all at the same time.
Portia de Rossi
33.
Every animal has its own intelligence and sensitivities. They're all lovely, worthwhile, and deserving of our respect.
Portia de Rossi
34.
When I watched Ellen come out in '97, my jaw was on the floor. I thought, There are some people who break the doors down, hold them open, and some people who walk right through.
Portia de Rossi
35.
I wondered if that's what aging felt like. That desire and reality were dueling until the day you die, that nobody every got to a place of peace. I had always wanted to get old so I didn't have to care anymore, but I began to think that it would be best just to skip the getting older part and just die.
Portia de Rossi
36.
I try to be feminine, yet intellectual and smart at the same time. You don't see enough of that.
Portia de Rossi
37.
I knew that I was gay, I knew it. I just couldn't see myself as a gay woman, even though that's where my heart was.
Portia de Rossi
38.
I stumbled into acting and just loved it. I deferred law school - and I'm still deferred.
Portia de Rossi
39.
Healing comes from love. And loving every living thing in turn helps you love yourself.
Portia de Rossi
40.
I would eat 300 calories a day - a lot of Jell-O and no-sugar everything, of course. I was doing Pilates, weight-training, circuit training; over lunch I would run on a treadmill in my dressing room with a fan on my face so I wouldn't sweat my makeup off.
Portia de Rossi
41.
And dieting, I discovered, was another form of disordered eating, just as anorexia and bulimia similarly disrupt the natural order of eating. "Ordered" eating is the practice of eating when you are hungry and ceasing to eat when your brain sends the signal that your stomach is full. ... All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering. If you can accept your natural body weight and not force it to beneath your body's natural, healthy weight, then you can live your life free of dieting, of restriction, of feeling guilty every time you eat a slice of your kid's birthday cake.
Portia de Rossi
42.
When it’s quiet in my head like this, that’s when the voice doesn’t need to tell me how pathetic I am. I know it in the deepest part of me. When it’s quiet like this, that’s when I truly hate myself.
Portia de Rossi
43.
I have to be asked, I guess, but I love the idea of marriage. I think it's beautiful. I'm such a romantic, and I always have been.
Portia de Rossi
44.
I had to find a relationship with someone who could simultaneously make me grow up and keep me forever young.
Portia de Rossi
45.
I could tell by his expression that once he got over his anger at me for keeping this secret from him, there was nothing left to talk about. He wasn't confused. He didn't need questions answered. He didn't ask why or how or with whom or whether I thought maybe it might just be a phase. He didn't ask who knew and who didn't know or whether I thought it might ruin my career. I was his sister and he didn't care whether I was straight or gay; it simply didn't matter to him.
Portia de Rossi
46.
The theory of objectivism claims that there are certain things that most people in society can agree upon. A model is pretty. A lawyer is smart. Our society is based upon objectivism. It’s how we make rules and why we obey them.
Portia de Rossi
47.
I love to work. I really enjoy getting up really early and driving downtown. I just really love the process of acting and being on a series.
Portia de Rossi
48.
You don't have to be emaciated or vomiting to be suffering. All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering.
Portia de Rossi
49.
I was trying to find a reason for having had to escape from the place that was my home. To convince myself of my choices, I had to make it a place that everyone should want to escape from.
Portia de Rossi
50.
Normal" isn't an adjective you wish to hear after putting that much effort into making sure it was spectacular.
Portia de Rossi