Catherine Deneuve Quotations

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.

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

Love is suffering. One side always loves more.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

In America you need a bodyguard to go out.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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 no physical courage, I've asked for a double.

I live very normally, I go out with my friends, we go to the movies, I queue, we go to restaurants. Then if something happens to remind me that I'm an actress then I become a little different and things become a little heavy.

I love to do very long and complicated scenes.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day.

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

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

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

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

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

Polanski was very precise. I think he still is.

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

I'm afraid of being too sure, to just deliver. I think that's the biggest danger for actors - after a certain time, when you're known and recognised, people expect you to do what you're supposed to do, and there's almost no more criticism and that's very dangerous.

What I do is I come in the morning and get involved in the character, but I'm always very pleased to leave it at night and have my life.

Sometimes, just to give the impression that you have the strength and the vitality demands a lot. You can't always give that impression when you have heels and a wig on and it's 40 degrees outside.

I love to do very long and complicated scenes. I like to have this impression that we are all working together, where you can see all the technicians and everybody is really doing the same thing at the same time. With close-ups, of course you have the crew there, but most of them are just around and it doesn't involve that many people.

You're better off not preparing, because what you prepare will always be wrong.

I know who I am, how I was. I don't want to know how I will be because nobody knows that.

I like working with directors much, because I want to be able to give myself completely to their vision. Otherwise I would only do what I could do, again and again. I want to be taken by someone in a different direction.

Most of the time I've worked with directors who write their own scripts. The story is more important to me than the part. The project of the film has always been more important to me.

I think I will always feel a special relationship with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, because for me it was something very, very special. It was a modern opera, and to play the heroine in a film that became such a success at a young age, and learning from him when I was so young and impressionable - really it was one of my most important experiences.

I think one of the few times I've been involved with real-life characters was the story of Marie Bonaparte. I think it's really difficult to become someone that really existed.

I am frivolous. But sometimes, that's the problem of my Christian education, when I know I've been frivolous, and I know I have to do it, then I feel guilty.

When you're young, you try to meet that expectation that people have of you. It can be very stressful. But with time it's become less of problem.

It was mostly an aura about him (Gene Kelly). For me he was Hollywood. The way I'd imagined it as a child.

Men are good but women are magic.

I admire Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet. I like a lot of comedians. I like Cameron Diaz - she's funny and has a very light spirit. That's quite rare nowadays. There are many actresses I admire.

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 should put scent where you like to be kissed.

I'm lucky; people write scripts for me.

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

I choose my roles carefully.

But I never gave up personal things to work, never.

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

The paparazzi are nothing but dogs of war.

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

Getting older is not nice for anyone, not for men, not for women, and even more difficult for people who depend on their physical appearance. But it's not a drama. I know some people who are much more stressed than I am. And also, I live in Europe; I think it would be much more difficult if I lived in America.

You'll be back. When the hunger knows no reason! And then you'll need to feed, and you'll need me to show you how.

You can tell how nervous I am by how fast I am talking!

Charm and perfection hardly cooperate. Charm premises little mistakes which one would like to cover.

I would love to work with Robert De Niro or Al Pacino. I think they're wonderful actors.

I'm so popular it's scary sometimes. I suppose I'm just everybody's type.

The only human being I could tell everything was my sister Françoise. She and I were so diametrically different; put together we would have been a fantastic woman.

Marriage is obsolete and a trap.