French Quotes

In the arts the way in which an idea is rendered, and the manner in which it is expressed, is much more important than the idea itself.

If the work is poor, the public taste will soon do it justice. And the author, reaping neither glory nor fortune, will learn by hard experience how to correct his mistakes.

Each time dawn appears, the mystery is there in its entirety.

Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.

Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable.

It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.

Poets are people who can still see the world through the eyes of children.

The tocsin you hear today is not an alarm but an alert: it sounds the charge against our enemies.

Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing.

In revolutions authority remains with the greatest scoundrels.

In order to conquer, what we need is to dare, still to dare, and always to dare.

Audacity, more audacity, always audacity.

At last I perceive that in revolutions the supreme power rests with the most abandoned.

We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring.

In an age of synthetic images and synthetic emotions, the chances of an accidental encounter with reality are remote indeed.

If you can't believe a little in what you see on the screen, it's not worth wasting your time on cinema.

There was a strange atmosphere on the set because we were filming in this large house, which was used for troubled children. You'd go in and find walls had been burnt down. The building was charged with this history and it stayed with us throughout the filming.

There are no rebels in the cinema business.

I've never read a screenplay in advance. You trust the artist.

I knew her work very well and I knew that if she offered me a role in her movie, it wouldn't be something stupid. So I agreed to do the film before I read the script.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

I do not consider myself beautiful.

I didn't so much choose the film as director Claire Denis chose me.

But I've always attracted attention, it's true, ever since I was very young.

I didn't see my character, Core, as a cannibal but as somebody who is extremely passionate and who doesn't have any conscience. She takes her passion to its complete extreme.

I have seized the light. I have arrested its flight.

With two thousand years of Christianity behind him... a man can't see a regiment of soldiers march past without going off the deep end. It starts off far too many ideas in his head.

We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don't go to a war, and even more to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. It's always so.

One can't relive one's life. Forgiveness is not what's difficult; one's always too ready to forgive. And it does no good, that's obvious.