Christopher Reeve

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• The key word for me on him is 'inspiration.' He is a leader by inspiration. He sets an example. It's quite important that people realize that I don't see him as a glad-handing show-off, a one-man vigilante force who rights every wrong. Basically, he's a pacifist, a man who comes along and says, 'What can I do to help?' He stands on the sidelines until there is real trouble. He does not want to get involved unless it's absolutely necessary because he thinks people should learn to make their own decisions.
  • On the role of "Superman" in an interview with Gene Siskel (1978)

• So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
  • Speech at the Democratic National Convention (26 August 1996)

• I'm starting a new chapter in my life, and you have no idea how much that means.
  • At the premiere of his first work as a director, after his injuries of 1995 (1997)

• We live in a time when the words impossible and unsolvable are no longer part of the scientific community's vocabulary. Each day we move closer to trials that will not just minimize the symptoms of disease and injury but eliminate them.
  • Testimony to a U.S House of Representatives subcommittee, on NIH funding for the year 2000 (14 April 1999)

• What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have — and you don’t have to be a ‘Superman’ to do it.
  • As quoted at the Christopher Reeve Foundation

• When the first Superman movie came out, I gave dozens of interviews to promote it. The most frequent question was: What is a hero? My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences. Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.
  • As quoted at the Christopher Reeve Foundation

• It gives me a moral compass. I often refer to Abe Lincoln, who said, "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. And that is my religion." I think we all have a little voice inside us that will guide us. It may be God, I don't know. But I think that if we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do. The Unitarian believes that God is good, and believes that God believes that man is good. Inherently. The Unitarian God is not a God of vengeance. And that is something I can appreciate.
  • On joining the Unitarian-Universalist Church, in an interview with Reader's Digest (October 2004)

About Christopher Reeve

• Christopher Reeve turned his focus away from his paralysis and began figuring out how he could live afresh. Reeve decided that a lot of people might like to hear his story. Instead of limiting the communication of his story to letters, books and videos subject to edit, Reeve chose the lecture circuit. That meant showing up in public, allowing the public to gawk at his incapacity, talking about his condition and sharing lessons learned. Thus, Christopher Reeve has become Superman for real.
  • Go Make A Life sermon by Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton

• He (Reeve) was put on this Earth for... a lot of reasons. He wasn't just here to be an actor. He was Superman.
  • Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner.