French Quotes

I wear a lot of wigs as Jacques Mesrine. He'd wear multiple wigs and take them off one at a time to rob three banks in one hour.

I was thinking of going to London drama schools or to New York, because France didn't accommodate the things I wanted to do in film.

I used to be more self-conscious about style because when you're younger, you want to exist, you want to show everything you do.

I think I'm actually more vulnerable than people imagine.

I really enjoy being an actor!

I ran away from three different boarding schools before joining a circus school, and eventually I became an actor. The only thing I learned at boarding school was never to send my child to one.

I love French style from the Thirties and Forties. French movie stars like Jean Gabin and Yves Montand had so much natural, effortless style.

I have learned that acting is not about beauty.

I grew up watching 'Raging Bull.'

I feel like the so-called bad guys are never totally bad. I guess it's the closest thing I can do to reality: people act nice but nobody really is nice. We all have to balance that with something dark.

I don't think France is a racist country, I really don't, but we do still have many problems with our immigrant past, and there's a shame that goes with that, that works both ways, in the host and in the post-immigrant generation.

I don't really shop any more. I only do it when I have to. I think it is very overrated.

I didn't have many girlfriends in my youth. I was an active young man, jumping from one girl to the next, but never with anyone for more than three or four months.

I did direct two short movies. I learned many things, and one of the things I learned was that I am not a director. It has to be visceral, and it's not for me. I feel much more comfortable acting.

I come from an acting family, my father was an actor, and I had to fight my way and just create my own identity.

I always had the sense of being in the spotlight, being on stage, being looked at.

Cronenberg's a lot of fun, and that a lot of people don't know watching his movies. He doesn't take himself seriously. He's still reinventing himself.

Cinema is entertainment, and people go to the movies because they want to feel good and forget about everything.

And now I have a big house, nice clothes and I travel in first class and I love it, so maybe it's time to enjoy being a star.

During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.

Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.

In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.

Actually, I'm not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I'm not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren't cooks.

We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.

Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn't go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick.

To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.