Juliette Binoche
For me, habit is just a synonym for death.Collection: Death
Being a famous actress may give you a sense of being important, but believe me, it's just an illusion.Collection: Famous
It's never been my purpose to become an American icon, or more famous or richer.Collection: Famous
It's not a struggle to be on a diet. You feel lighter, and your spirit is lighter, too. But I love chocolate, and I allow myself to have chocolate. That doesn't go against a diet for me.Collection: Diet
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.Collection: Sad
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.Collection: Teacher
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.Collection: Movies
What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it.
What makes a person sexy is when he's not trying to be sexy.
I don't believe in coincidence.
Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes.
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 live for the present always. I accept this risk. I don't deny the past, but it's a page to turn.
The best mother is the mother who adapts, and the best children are the children who adapt as well.
I would have loved to have met Marilyn Monroe and have dinner with her.
You must understand, I don't have to be happy to be happy.
Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life.
My ambition is to have beautiful encounters, not to make money.
Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.
As an actress we don't beat one another. It's whoever's right for the part.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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 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.
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 sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible.
I think I am pretty much melancholic.
I think it's the same simple thing for everyone - to be happy, and have love in your life.
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.
I was so happy when they cast me in Chocolat, because it's one of my vices.
I won't do something just for the sake of working.
I would say I'm humanly engaged.
I'm not obsessed by looks. I think you can become a prisoner of your own image.
If you have everything, then you don't want to go on. It's the lacking that makes you search for something better.
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.
My only ambition is to be true every moment I am living.
Oh, I'll be forgotten too, don't worry.
People think actors have such glamorous lives, but the truth is actors go where nobody wants to go.
There was probably something as a child I wanted to express, something unsaid that I needed to share.
I am not a great French woman. George Sand, Marguerite Duras and Simone de Beauvoir are great French women.
Acting is like peeling an onion. You have to peel away each layer to reveal another.
I want to make films that are political and social. Films with a message or an idea. Films that dare to ask.
I move on stage differently. The more you act, anyway, the more you live, your perception of life becomes more and more accurate.
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.
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.
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.