Emmanuelle Beart

We were raised without movies, theater or music. We had only nature, the hills, the trees. When I got on the set of 'Manon,' I wasn't star-struck because I didn't know what a star was.

Beauty is not something you can count on. Usually, when people say you are beautiful, it is when there is a harmony between the inside and the outside.

It is not easy to age in harmony with one's roles.

Often, when you see yourself on the screen, you feel like a sweater that's been put through the washing machine. You have the impression of having done something full and luminous, and suddenly, when you see it on the screen, it's turned back into a tiny little thing.

I give everything I have to give on the screen. I feel I don't owe the public anything else.

The body, in 'La Belle Noiseuse,' was the source of the artist's creativity.

There are moments when you feel that the desire to work is fading, and the only way to bring it back is to get away from it, to put yourself in a state of frustration so you feel the need again.

I am an actress, I earn money, I am well-known. I don't think it is altruism to become engaged in humanitarian work. It's the least one can do.

I think my best work has been in France with great men. It's been my great fortune to work with really great men - with Olivier Assayas, Raoul Ruiz, Jacques Rivette. I am tutored by them.

Of course I am political. You 'ave to be don't you? Every day it is about your future, your right to that future. 'Ow can people ignore this? We 'ave to leave a good world for our children, n'est-ce pas?