Skip to main content

Marriage Quote by Natalie Portman

"I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred"

About this Quote

Portman’s skepticism about marriage isn’t anti-romance; it’s anti-institution. She’s tugging apart two things we’re trained to treat as inseparable: the private vow and the public contract. “Divorce is so easy” lands less as a complaint about people quitting than as a critique of how modern marriage is packaged - a ritual marketed as ultimate commitment, yet structured for legal reversibility. The subtext is almost consumerist: if the return policy is generous, what exactly are we buying when we buy the symbol?

Then she pivots to politics, and the line sharpens. Pointing to the exclusion of gay people isn’t a rhetorical flourish; it’s an accusation that the institution’s “meaning” is socially manufactured and selectively granted. Marriage, in that context, stops being a neutral container for love and becomes a gatekeeping device that confers legitimacy on some relationships while withholding it from others. If the state can deny it, the sanctity starts to look like branding.

The final sentence - “Committing yourself to one person is sacred” - is the emotional release valve. Portman salvages devotion from the rubble of the legal framework. She’s arguing that the sacred part is behavioral, not bureaucratic: showing up, choosing, enduring. Coming from a pop-culture figure, it also reads like a refusal to perform the traditional celebrity narrative (fairytale wedding, photogenic permanence). It’s a bid for moral seriousness without the costume jewelry of certainty.

Quote Details

TopicMarriage
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Portman, Natalie. (2026, January 15). I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-convinced-about-marriage-divorce-is-so-155679/

Chicago Style
Portman, Natalie. "I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-convinced-about-marriage-divorce-is-so-155679/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-convinced-about-marriage-divorce-is-so-155679/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Natalie Add to List
Natalie Portman on Marriage, Divorce and Equality
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman (born June 9, 1981) is a Actress from USA.

41 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes