Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now.

I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself. It's passing through you more than you're creating it. You're not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower.

I would have loved to have met Marilyn Monroe and have dinner with her.

I won't do something just for the sake of working.

I've never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn't choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.

What makes a person sexy is when he's not trying to be sexy.

I think it's the same simple thing for everyone - to be happy, and have love in your life.

Being a famous actress may give you a sense of being important, but believe me, it's just an illusion.

My ambition is to have beautiful encounters, not to make money.

As an actress we don't beat one another. It's whoever's right for the part.

I was so happy when they cast me in Chocolat, because it's one of my vices.

If you have everything, then you don't want to go on. It's the lacking that makes you search for something better.

There was probably something as a child I wanted to express, something unsaid that I needed to share.

But I've never felt that being an actress is being in a comfortable place. It's seen from the outside that we're being driven in big cars and having these gorgeous suites and all of that. But come on, it's not about that.

I'm not obsessed by looks. I think you can become a prisoner of your own image.

You must understand, I don't have to be happy to be happy.

But I think it's a little different in Europe, because 40 is really the best age for a woman. That's when we hit our peak and become this ripe fruit.

Oh, I'll be forgotten too, don't worry.

I believe that being an actress or being involved in a movie has to be a life experience, otherwise why go for it? I have to change me, and I have to learn things, and I have to push me and my limits. By acting, I find a freedom inside of a prison in a way.

Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life.

Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.

I live for the present always. I accept this risk. I don't deny the past, but it's a page to turn.

I don't believe in coincidence.

I sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible.

But, you know, when I choose a film I need to believe in it and believe I can do something special with it, and after a while that means not trying to judge or analyze why I should do it. You have to follow this intuition thing, which is a mystery to me.

Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes.

Each new film is like a trial. Before I step in front of the camera, I do not know whether I am going to fall or whether I am going to fly - and that is exactly the way I want it to stay.

I try to see my films just once. it's like a dream you've been through when it's been intense, and you just have to go through it once more just to make sure you've had it.

People think actors have such glamorous lives, but the truth is actors go where nobody wants to go.

I think I am pretty much melancholic.

My only ambition is to be true every moment I am living.

Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now.

It's never been my purpose to become an American icon, or more famous or richer.

Choosing to be in the theatre was a way to put my roots down somewhere with other people. It was a way to choose a new family.

I like travelling and if I have to come to Hollywood to make a movie I will, but otherwise I'd never move there. It's very much an industry town and that doesn't really interest me.

I never felt being an actor or making a movie was an easy thing to do.

I would say I'm humanly engaged.

For me, habit is just a synonym for death.

Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No I don't need reassurance.

What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it.

Acting is like peeling an onion. You have to peel away each layer to reveal another.

As actors, we are so privileged to do what we do and to give to the world and to choose the subject we want to say to the world.

As an actor, I have to be fulfilled in the roles that I play; it has to be a journey for me to learn something or involve myself.

As an actress, I think there is always a political consciousness there.

Fighting the ageing process just doesn't work. I think that actresses, ultimately, are responsible for the faces we give to women.

For me, acting goes to a special place; it's almost mystical. You have to let go of what you think is good; it's a jump into trust, and trying to reach without wanting too much.

I am not a great French woman. George Sand, Marguerite Duras and Simone de Beauvoir are great French women.

I am not a woman staying at home.

I don't like films giving me answers. I like films that are provoking me, that are making me feel not only being in an easy place.