10 Great Quotes by Sharon Stone About Women, Sexuality, and Hollywood

Sharon Stone is one of those actresses I feel like I’ve known my whole life. An icon remembered not just for her roles, but as a personality who transcended the boundaries of the film industry. As a teenager, I wanted to have a hairstyle like hers in Casino, you know, that blonde, teased hair with a headband, but I quickly realized that style just didn’t suit me. Still, Sharon Stone has always struck me as someone who radiates confidence, elegance, and a special kind of charm that doesn’t depend on trends or time.

In addition to redefining the concept of the femme fatale on screen, Sharon Stone was also a fashion icon, from red carpets to fashion editorials. Her presence was bold, sophisticated, and often deliberately subversive, much like her public appearances and interviews, in which she would later openly speak about sexism, abuse in the industry, illness, and the personal struggles that shaped her. My fascination with her actually began much earlier, through the film Basic Instinct, which had already become part of cinematic history by the time I was born, five years after its release. That film defined the ’90s, not just because of its provocative content, but because Sharon Stone, through her role as Catherine Tramell, became a symbol of female power, sexuality, and manipulation unlike anything Hollywood had seen before. In that role, she wasn’t just an object of desire, she was a figure of control, a woman who led the game, which at the time was almost revolutionary.

Sharon Stone attends “The Crossing Guard” Westwood Premiere, 1995, Getty images

Later, in college, when I began to seriously explore her life, I realized just how unusual and fascinating her story truly is, from growing up in a working-class family in Pennsylvania, to a severe head injury that changed her life, to the ongoing battle with the stereotypes that Hollywood kept imposing on her. Her legendary quotes, which I used to see on Pinterest written in pretty fonts over pastel backgrounds, were in fact the authentic thoughts of a woman who consciously and bravely built her own identity, regardless of the cost.

In the public eye, she was often reduced to the role of the “blonde bombshell,” but Sharon Stone is so much more than that. Over the years, she became a vocal activist and feminist, openly speaking about how difficult it is to be free and true to yourself in a world that doesn’t easily forgive that. Her statements, while often witty or provocative, are also thoughtful, sharp, and honest, shaped by experiences that many wouldn’t expect from a woman Hollywood wanted to portray as merely ornamental.

Sharon Stone & husband Phil Bronstein during The 70th Annual Academy Awards, Getty images

Here are 10 powerful quotes from Sharon Stone on women, sexuality, and Hollywood:

1. I’m not interested in being young forever. This idea that being youthful is the only thing that’s beautiful or attractive simply isn’t true. I don’t want to be an ‘ageless beauty. ‘ I want to be a woman who is the best I can be at my age.

2. Women can fake an orgasm, but men can fake an entire relationship.

3. We have every right to be powerful in whatever form of sexuality we choose to have. And no one is allowed to take that away from you.

4. I don’t believe makeup and the right hairstyle alone can make a woman beautiful. The most radiant woman in the room is the one full of life and experience..

5. I’m not trying to make myself look like a girl because I’m not a girl anymore. I’m very happy about being a grown woman.

Sharon Stone during Beverly Hills Premiere of “Last Dance”, Getty images

6. Thirty years ago, when I did Basic Instinct, Michael Douglas made $14 million and I made $500,000… Last year… they offered me again $500,000 to be the female lead. And I thought, 30 years later this is still happening.

7. It’s up to men to teach other men what to do.

8. Feminism isn’t hating men. It’s believing women are whole people. That shouldn’t inspire so much ire.

9. It’s a pleasure for me now. I mean, I’m gonna be 56 years old. If people want to think I’m a sex symbol, it’s, like, yeah. … At a certain point you start asking yourself, ‘What really is sexy?’It’s not just the elevation of your boobs. It’s being present and having fun and liking yourself enough to like the person that’s with you.

10. I was not a sex symbol. I was a symbol of a woman you couldn’t control.