Eric Cantona

I prefer to play and lose rather than win, because I know in advance I'm going to win.

You retire, but you're still aching to play. But in order to play, you have to resist certain temptations, and train hard. And I just didn't have the desire to do that any more.

I like to stay at home and make cinema in my head.

I stopped playing football because I'd done as much as I could. I needed something which was going to excite me as much as football had excited me.

We knew that you don't get to be world champions without a struggle.

I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.

The French have only negative things to say about everything and everyone.

I try to find different ways of expressing myself. Without that I will die.

I want to look forward.

We knew that you dont get to be world champions without a struggle.

I don't want to be in Terminator. I don't want to go to Hollywood.

I don't care about the past.

I manage a team, for beach soccer. I'm the coach. Player, coach.

I try to be honest.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

We all seem to be about aggression and greed. It's a massive pressure that affects us all.

You can feel very quickly as a prisoner of your past, of the memories.

My father's parents were from Sardinia and my mother's from Barcelona.

You need a particular talent only to want to please. I don't have this talent.

Children go where they find sincerity and authenticity.

Actually, I wanted to act even when I was still playing football.

I'm lucky to have the privilege of being able to choose what I want to do.

I think life is a big game we play.

If you have only one passion in life - football - and you pursue it to the exclusion of everything else, it becomes very dangerous. When you stop doing this activity it is as though you are dying. The death of that activity is a death in itself.

I'm just enjoying my life at the moment.

Being French, to me, is first and foremost being a revolutionary.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

He who has regrets cannot look at himself in the mirror.

Manchester United is stronger than anybody in the world.

I apologize for nothing.

I found leaving Manchester United very, very hard.

Sometimes you surprise the goalkeeper and sometimes the goalkeeper surprises you. In my career, I tried to do more of the first than the second.

I didn't study; I live.

Every experience makes you a man.

I don't think we can be entirely happy seeing such misery around us.

Some films I say no to and they end up working very well, but I don't care, I just want to do something exciting.

The revolution is really easy to do nowadays.

If someone is too perfect they won't look good. Imperfection is important.

Football lost its excitement for me.

I'm proud of what I achieved there, but a life built on memories is not much of a life.

Often there are players who have only football as a way of expressing themselves and never develop other interests. And when they no longer play football, they no longer do anything; they no longer exist, or rather they have the sensation of no longer existing.

My ancestors were fighters, something I have inherited.

In England, your life is your life.

I see the world become so uniform. Everybody has to be the same. I like people who are different.

Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

I always knew I had to work hard.

I like to be fascinated by the people I photograph. Sometimes I don't admire them but I'm interested in them.

In England your life is your life.

In football you have an adversary; in cinema that adversary is yourself.

It is enjoyable to make things visible which are invisible.

I started beach football in Monte Carlo when I retired from football in 1997. I liked the game very much.

I don't need to be involved with a game watched by millions of people to be fulfilled.

The pressure people put on themselves and the rivalry between the teams is much more marked. And I think that's a good thing. As long as that rivalry remains within the spirit of competition, it con only spur everyone on.

I live to feel myself in danger.

We won the European Championship last September and now the world title. That is some year for French beach soccer! Now comes the hard part. We have to keep improving and that's difficult because it's tough to do better than winning a world title.

I have great memories.

We all have common frailties but we need to treasure friends more.

I have a car but it's not important.

The real fans of football come from the working class. Now they cannot afford to come and watch the game.

What is the system? It revolves around the banks, the system is built on the power of the banks, so it can be destroyed through the banks.

Sometimes you get submerged by emotion. I think it's very important to express it - which doesn't necessarily mean hitting someone.

On sand, you can never be sure of anything. An ordinary shot can take a wicked deflection at the last moment.

My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan.

I don't want to go to Hollywood.

I don't know where my medals are.

Sometimes in life one experiences an emotion which is so strong that it is difficult to think, or to reason.

Some people need to stay at the top. They are afraid to re-start from zero because they fear the critics.

I know that I have a face, a look, people aren't used to seeing. A presence.

Sometimes in life one experiences an emotion which is so strong that it is difficult to think or to reason.

I always wanted to play against the best.

For me, I don't like it when there is too much interference in our lives. We're not children. It is our own life in our hands.

It's my country but I don't want to know about France - I was born there but I feel English.

When you arrive in England for football it's a paradise.

I have to wear clothes but I don't like to give an idea of what I am with clothes.

I think I have a sense of mischief and that I can laugh at myself.

You can lose in cinema too if you don't put on a good performance.

I don't take life so seriously... I can just play with life.

We can be eaten by techniques and forget what we have inside of us.

I always planned to retire when I was at the top and at Manchester United I have reached the pinnacle of my career.

When times are difficult, I tell myself, 'I'm just passing through.'