Juliette Binoche

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.

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

My private life is very private, and I have chosen not to live in America or England, where you are so exposed and can't fight against it.

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

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.

You make your own path as an actor. Nobody does it for you, so you have to invent yourself.

I was used to theatre classes. I studied with my mother; she was a theatre teacher and directed, too, so it was very family-like. Then I studied with a great teacher in Paris, and she was wonderful; she pushed me, but she was a warm soul.

I love the unknown. I think because it brings fear, and to embrace fear is the best feeling.

What I need is to express my passion for life... It's movement I'm interested in, the life in me, the life in humanity.

When I'm in the movie, I'm entirely in the movie. When I'm on the set, I'm 200 per cent there; when I'm at home, I'm 200 per cent at home.

I've played journalists before, and I have good friends who are journalists. I think being an actor is not very far from being a journalist. Because you investigate, you try to understand, you're asking questions, you're interested in the other.

The thing is that I never felt beautiful. I really never did. I think I can change my looks and be different things, but I've never thought of myself as this face.

Usually I love preparing. It's really the time I prefer, because it's a time of reflection and of possibility of growth - to let it cook inside.

When you really put your heart in the work, you don't think of how you look. And I think that's the beauty of it.

I move on stage differently. The more you act, anyway, the more you live, your perception of life becomes more and more accurate.

I want to make films that are political and social. Films with a message or an idea. Films that dare to ask.

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

Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life... I live for the present always. I accept this risk. I don't deny the past, but it's a page to turn.

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

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

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

Some words, you know, it's amazing but some words would come only in French, and when I speak French, it would only come in English. And so the adjustment is very difficult sometimes.

I like intensity. If it's too mellow, I feel like, bleah. I like intensity, because it's way of reaching spaces inside of you, and it's my need of knowledge, of knowing about myself regardless.

Sometimes I call directors. Sometimes I just meet with them. It just happens. It's not that I'm pushy. It comes naturally. But I go ahead. I don't stay in my armchair, waiting for the phone to ring.

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.

If you told me tomorrow that I couldn't act anymore, it wouldn't bother me. I have only one wish: to meet the man of my life.

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.

I've been changed watching films or reading books or hearing music, and that helps you to live your life.

I am not a woman staying at home.

When you make a film, it's a bet. You don't know how the film is going to be, anyway.

I'm very down-to-earth and accessible, I think.

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

I wanted to work with people from the world, with different minds and different visions.

I never really worked in Hollywood. Some American producers came to Europe to shoot films with me, so it's a different situation... It was not my aim.

The best mother is the mother who adapts, and the best children are the children who adapt as well.

I'm a fighter as a mother. I'm fighting to be a mother, but I cannot say no to my passion because it's me, as well.

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.

I like being a mother, and I want to be involved in my work, so I have to make choices. If you're a film actress, your career is from 20 to 45, but you can still dream.

I really don't think that the Oscar changed my career much because I didn't want it to.

When I won the Oscar, there was something telling me 'this isn't the truth'. I had to get back to real work.

My aim was never to be an American star; otherwise, I would have moved to Los Angeles.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes.

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

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

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