Claudia Cardinale Quotes

“Acting is fantastic because I've been living thousands of lives, not only my life.”

“I have never considered myself an actress. I'm just a woman with a certain sensitivity: that's what I've always worked with. I approached the characters with great humility: trying to live them from within, using myself, and without resorting to any type of technique.”

“I maintained a childish face on a woman's body for a long time. And this blend of purity and sensuality attracted directors.”

“I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I've never revealed myself or even my body in films. Mystery is very important.”

“I think cinema is a bit like men, the less you want them, the more they chase you.”

“I wasn't speaking a word of Italian until I was 18. They had to dub my voice in my first Italian picture!”

“If you're not English, you're a foreigner – so you must be sexy. It's an old British cliché.”

“It is with passion and dedication that I will be attentive to the needs of women and fight relentlessly for their rights.”

“Love is a cage with makeshift bars.”

“Luchino Visconti wanted me dark-haired, for Federico Fellini I had to be a blonde, I had long hair at the time and kept dyeing it from one to the other. The two directors were completely different, almost hated each other, I think.”

“Marriage functions best when both partners remain somewhat unmarried.”

“Sergio Leone invented totally the way of, you know, the details, the eyes, the hands – fantastic.”

“Sergio Leone was considered in Italy a director of category B, not a big director.”

“To do this kind of work, you have to be very strong, otherwise you lose your personality, your identity.”

“What's incredible is that I'm 75 and still working.”

“You have to be sensitive to be an actor, but you also have to be strong. This is the great difficulty of this profession. It forces us to be both. In our cruel world, the weak do not survive.”