Quotes by Catherine Deneuve

• Bjork is a very original, interesting person. I like her very much.
• 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.
• Acting is also working with people who invite you into their dreams and trust you with their innermost being.
• Actors have to be there and do the work, and that's enough.
• Being a film actor is very different from a theatre actor.
• A lot of actors don't like to see how they've done every day.
• Being an actress is a very physical thing. If I didn't look the way I looked, I would never have started in films.
• Film is a very young art that is still evolving. Soon, we shall reach a balance between content and technology.
• 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.
• Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else. I want to give myself completely.
• Directors have to push me. I have to be pushed up. Not all the time, but often.
• 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.
• Even if there are a lot women in films, there are few who are lesbians, that people know about.
• On Belle de Jour, the producer was very protective. It was very hard for me.
• 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.
• I always try to keep that feeling of being on the edge. I'm afraid of knowing too well and seeming mechanical.
• I am frivolous. Then I feel guilty.
• I can be very critical on myself and on other people; I can be very demanding.
• It has been very erotic and provocative for people to wonder about my feelings for women.
• In America you need a bodyguard to go out.
• 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'm not an admirer of action movies. I just think, Oh my God, it must be so tiring.
• Even if a woman is abused a very long time ago, it comes out in her life in a negative way.
• 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.
• You suffer as an actor. It's difficult to be an actor and live a good life, especially today.
• You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration.
• You can express a lot of things, a lot of action without speaking.
• When I first see the dailies, I look only at myself, but then you start to see the scene.
• Truffaut loved actresses, and he was very intense. All the actresses I knew wanted to do a film with him.
• 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.
• To have a public life, you still have the right to a private life.
• 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.
• There are relatively few role models for young people. We are in a society that is ruled by men.
• The story is more important to me than the part.
• Marriage is obsolete and a trap.
• Sometimes it's more difficult to do very simple, low-key films.
• It's very difficult for me to speak about being an actor.
• Sex is a big question mark. It is something people will talk about forever.
• Polanski was very precise. I think he still is.
• People expect a lot more from someone they think looks interesting. It's a burden.
• People don't know very much about me. They do not know what really goes on in my private life.
• Opportunities are often things you haven't noticed the first time around.
• People who know me know I'm strong, but I'm vulnerable.
• Mississippi Mermaid was a very special experience because we only had the dialogues for the scenes we were shooting the night before.
• I'm not always the nicest person to meet, because I forget very easily that I'm an actress when I'm not working.
• Love is suffering. One side always loves more.
• Lesbians and gays... they still have to fight, even inside. It's not that simple, even if they seem to be accepted.
• That's what I like about film-it can be bizarre, classic, normal, romantic. Cinema is to me the most versatile thing.
• I'm lucky; people write scripts for me.
• 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.
• 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.
• I choose my roles carefully.
• I did important films when I was very young.
• I didn't devote my life to acting. I give a lot to my work, but my life has always been more important.
• I don't enjoy. I suffer from enjoying. It's very Christian.
• I love to do very long and complicated scenes.
• I don't see any reason for marriage when there is divorce.
• I love to not work. I like to travel. I work maybe half the year, no more.
• I get irritated, nervous, very tense or stressed, but never bored.
• 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.
• I have no physical courage, I've asked for a double.
• I have been involved in some films other actresses would not have done.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• I never hoped that both my children would become actors. I expected them to do something else.
• I think anything that has to do with sexuality makes people very interested.
• I cannot imagine having a physical relationship with a woman. I have not done that. But I really love women.
• I wouldn't say no to being in a film with Jude Law. I love English actors.
• I would have liked maybe to be in architecture or painting, something connected to the fine arts.
• I like being famous when it's convenient for me and completely anonymous when it's not.
• I was never a dangerous woman. I'm not the prissy blonde woman that could take your husband away.
• I live very normally, I go out with my friends, we go to the movies, I queue, we go to restaurants.
• Prostitution happens to you because of troubles you had. In reality no woman would choose to do that.
• I think the clothes in Belle de Jour are very important to the style of the film. Even today, it is still timeless.