50 Quotes by Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve is an iconic French actress known for her elegance, beauty, and remarkable talent on the silver screen. With a career spanning several decades, she has become synonymous with French cinema and is celebrated internationally for her contributions to the art of acting. Deneuve's performances often exude a unique blend of sophistication and vulnerability, making her characters deeply relatable and memorable.

Her collaborations with renowned directors like Luis Buñuel and François Truffaut have resulted in some of the most influential films in cinematic history. Deneuve's range as an actress allows her to effortlessly transition between drama, romance, and comedy, leaving audiences captivated by her screen presence. Beyond her artistic achievements, she has been an ambassador for French culture and an influential figure in the fashion world. Deneuve's impact on the film industry and her enduring popularity have solidified her status as an enduring symbol of French cinema and an inspiration to aspiring actors around the globe.

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Catherine Deneuve Quotes


Opportunities are often things you haven't noticed the first time around.

At a certain age, you have to choose between your face and your ass.

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.

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.

Love is suffering. One side always loves more.

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

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.

People have always thought of me as someone who's very classical, when in fact I've led a rather unconventional life.

If you try to measure the future, you will never risk the present. Playing it safe. A ghastly game.

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Marriage is obsolete and a trap.

I don't enjoy. I suffer from enjoying. It's very Christian.

The story is more important to me than the part.

Men are good but women are magic.

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

You should put scent where you like to be kissed.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Sometimes, if you're shooting a complicated scene, you have to stay in a position and wait for the technician to do his job, and then you have to be where you're supposed to be, right on the spot. You don't rehearse all that much on films. If I think of the amount of time I spend on set compared with the time spent shooting, it's ridiculously short.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The paparazzi are nothing but dogs of war.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

― Catherine Deneuve Quotes

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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.

 
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