Catherine Deneuve

I cannot imagine having a physical relationship with a woman. I have not done that. But I really love women.

I am frivolous. Then I feel guilty.

I don’t see any reason for marriage when there is divorce.

It has been very erotic and provocative for people to wonder about my feelings for women.

I think the clothes in Belle de Jour are very important to the style of the film. Even today, it is still timeless.

I love to not work. I like to travel. I work maybe half the year, no more.

In America you need a bodyguard to go out.

Being a film actor is very different from a theatre actor.

Film is a very young art that is still evolving. Soon, we shall reach a balance between content and technology.

People who know me know I’m strong, but I’m vulnerable.

I love vampire stories. That’s why I did the movie. Women especially were taken with that movie-even more so when it came out on video.

When I first see the dailies, I look only at myself, but then you start to see the scene.

I’m not an admirer of action movies. I just think, Oh my God, it must be so tiring.

Marriage is obsolete and a trap.

Acting is also working with people who invite you into their dreams and trust you with their innermost being.

I wouldn’t say no to being in a film with Jude Law. I love English actors.

Some people fall in love with their co-stars and feel things that they never thought they would feel for them because they are touching.

It’s always difficult to play a scene of physical violence because you’re always afraid that you don’t know your own strength and might hurt someone.

I get irritated, nervous, very tense or stressed, but never bored.

Cinema is still a very young art form with extraordinary techniques and very impressive special effects but sometimes it seems the soul has been taken out of things.

It’s very difficult for me to speak about being an actor.

People don’t know very much about me. They do not know what really goes on in my private life.

Truffaut loved actresses, and he was very intense. All the actresses I knew wanted to do a film with him.

I live very normally, I go out with my friends, we go to the movies, I queue, we go to restaurants.

I can be very critical on myself and on other people; I can be very demanding.

A woman has to be intelligent, have charm, a sense of humor, and be kind. It’s the same qualities I require from a man.

That’s what I like about film-it can be bizarre, classic, normal, romantic. Cinema is to me the most versatile thing.

The story is more important to me than the part.

I have no physical courage, I’ve asked for a double.

I like being famous when it’s convenient for me and completely anonymous when it’s not.

A lot of actors don’t like to see how they’ve done every day.

I did important films when I was very young.

Even if there are a lot women in films, there are few who are lesbians, that people know about.

I don’t enjoy. I suffer from enjoying. It’s very Christian.

I’ve always been able to decide what was more important at different points in my life, but I never gave up personal things to work, never.

I would have liked maybe to be in architecture or painting, something connected to the fine arts.

You suffer as an actor. It’s difficult to be an actor and live a good life, especially today.

I think anything that has to do with sexuality makes people very interested.

I had mice that I kept as pets when I was very young, and I’ve always liked the way they look. Even rats. I’m not scared of them.

There are relatively few role models for young people. We are in a society that is ruled by men.

Mississippi Mermaid was a very special experience because we only had the dialogues for the scenes we were shooting the night before.

This book was company for me – I wrote these things when I was in hotels, far from where I normally live. I never intended to publish it.

You can express a lot of things, a lot of action without speaking.

I like all these little animals that run and eat and hide all the time. I like their faces, They seem to be scared and curious at the same time.

Sex is a big question mark. It is something people will talk about forever.

I have a strong sense of responsibility. I like to be directed, it’s true. If I didn’t like that, I’d do something else.

I have been involved in some films other actresses would not have done.

I admire directors so much, I find them incredible: they manage such a huge number of people of different characters, think of the money involved.

To have a public life, you still have the right to a private life.

Even if a woman is abused a very long time ago, it comes out in her life in a negative way.

Prostitution happens to you because of troubles you had. In reality no woman would choose to do that.

I always try to keep that feeling of being on the edge. I’m afraid of knowing too well and seeming mechanical.

I like some of the early silent films because I love to watch how actors had to play then. What would interest me today is to do a silent film.

Being an actress is a very physical thing. If I didn’t look the way I looked, I would never have started in films.

Polanski was very precise. I think he still is.

I don’t live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day.

Love is suffering. One side always loves more.

I didn’t devote my life to acting. I give a lot to my work, but my life has always been more important.

I never hoped that both my children would become actors. I expected them to do something else.

Opportunities are often things you haven’t noticed the first time around.

I go to the movies a lot, and I regret when I see some actor that I used to like, to find them offering no more surprises.

To wait, for an actor, is not like someone who’s waiting to see the doctor. It’s not the kind of wait where you get bored.

I’m not always the nicest person to meet, because I forget very easily that I’m an actress when I’m not working.

People expect a lot more from someone they think looks interesting. It’s a burden.

I love to do very long and complicated scenes.

Lesbians and gays… they still have to fight, even inside. It’s not that simple, even if they seem to be accepted.

You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration.

Directors have to push me. I have to be pushed up. Not all the time, but often.

I was never a dangerous woman. I’m not the prissy blonde woman that could take your husband away.

Actors have to be there and do the work, and that’s enough.

Bjork is a very original, interesting person. I like her very much.

I choose my roles carefully.

Sometimes it’s more difficult to do very simple, low-key films.

On Belle de Jour, the producer was very protective. It was very hard for me.

I’m lucky; people write scripts for me.

All women who kill or have sexual obsessions or who are prostitutes have trouble with their fathers.

Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else. I want to give myself completely.