Top 90 Catherine Deneuve Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “To wait, for an actor, is not like someone who’s waiting to see the doctor. It’s not the kind of wait where you get bored.”

— Catherine Deneuve

52. “You suffer as an actor. It’s difficult to be an actor and live a good life, especially today.”

— Catherine Deneuve

53. “Sometimes it’s more difficult to do very simple, low-key films.”

— Catherine Deneuve

54. “I had mice that I kept as pets when I was very young, and I’ve always liked the way they look. Even rats. I’m not scared of them.”

— Catherine Deneuve

55. “I think anything that has to do with sexuality makes people very interested.”

— Catherine Deneuve

56. “Even if a woman is abused a very long time ago, it comes out in her life in a negative way.”

— Catherine Deneuve

57. “I’m afraid of being too sure, to just deliver. I think that’s the biggest danger for actors – after a certain time, when you’re known and recognised, people expect you to do what you’re supposed to do, and there’s almost no more criticism and that’s very dangerous.”

— Catherine Deneuve

58. “I like all these little animals that run and eat and hide all the time. I like their faces, They seem to be scared and curious at the same time.”

— Catherine Deneuve

59. “Being an actress is a very physical thing. If I didn’t look the way I looked, I would never have started in films.”

— Catherine Deneuve

60. “I admire directors so much, I find them incredible: they manage such a huge number of people of different characters, think of the money involved.”

— Catherine Deneuve

61. “I don’t live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day.”

— Catherine Deneuve

62. “I have no physical courage, I’ve asked for a double.”

— Catherine Deneuve

63. “When you’re young, you try to meet that expectation that people have of you. It can be very stressful. But with time it’s become less of problem.”

— Catherine Deneuve

64. “Acting is also working with people who invite you into their dreams and trust you with their innermost being.”

— Catherine Deneuve

65. “Truffaut loved actresses, and he was very intense. All the actresses I knew wanted to do a film with him.”

— Catherine Deneuve

66. “I never hoped that both my children would become actors. I expected them to do something else.”

— Catherine Deneuve

67. “In America you need a bodyguard to go out.”

— Catherine Deneuve

68. “It’s very difficult for me to speak about being an actor.”

— Catherine Deneuve

69. “People expect a lot more from someone they think looks interesting. It’s a burden.”

— Catherine Deneuve

70. “I’ve always been able to decide what was more important at different points in my life, but I never gave up personal things to work, never.”

— Catherine Deneuve

71. “I go to the movies a lot, and I regret when I see some actor that I used to like, to find them offering no more surprises.”

— Catherine Deneuve

72. “You can tell how nervous I am by how fast I am talking!”

— Catherine Deneuve

73. “Film is a very young art that is still evolving. Soon, we shall reach a balance between content and technology.”

— Catherine Deneuve

74. “Most of the time I’ve worked with directors who write their own scripts. The story is more important to me than the part. The project of the film has always been more important to me.”

— Catherine Deneuve

75. “I’m not an admirer of action movies. I just think, Oh my God, it must be so tiring.”

— Catherine Deneuve

76. “I can be very critical on myself and on other people; I can be very demanding.”

— Catherine Deneuve

77. “People don’t know very much about me. They do not know what really goes on in my private life.”

— Catherine Deneuve

78. “When I first see the dailies, I look only at myself, but then you start to see the scene.”

— Catherine Deneuve

79. “I live very normally, I go out with my friends, we go to the movies, I queue, we go to restaurants. Then if something happens to remind me that I’m an actress then I become a little different and things become a little heavy.”

— Catherine Deneuve

80. “Being an actor means being an instrument for someone else. I want to give myself completely.”

— Catherine Deneuve

81. “Directors have to push me. I have to be pushed up. Not all the time, but often.”

— Catherine Deneuve

82. “I love vampire stories. That’s why I did the movie. Women especially were taken with that movie-even more so when it came out on video.”

— Catherine Deneuve

83. “Sometimes, just to give the impression that you have the strength and the vitality demands a lot. You can’t always give that impression when you have heels and a wig on and it’s 40 degrees outside.”

— Catherine Deneuve

84. “I like some of the early silent films because I love to watch how actors had to play then. What would interest me today is to do a silent film.”

— Catherine Deneuve

85. “A lot of actors don’t like to see how they’ve done every day.”

— Catherine Deneuve

86. “You can express a lot of things, a lot of action without speaking.”

— Catherine Deneuve

87. “It’s always difficult to play a scene of physical violence because you’re always afraid that you don’t know your own strength and might hurt someone.”

— Catherine Deneuve

88. “On Belle de Jour, the producer was very protective. It was very hard for me.”

— Catherine Deneuve

89. “What I do is I come in the morning and get involved in the character, but I’m always very pleased to leave it at night and have my life.”

— Catherine Deneuve

90. “But I never gave up personal things to work, never.”

— Catherine Deneuve

91. “Actors have to be there and do the work, and that’s enough.”

— Catherine Deneuve

92. “Being a film actor is very different from a theatre actor.”

— Catherine Deneuve

93. “I like working with directors much, because I want to be able to give myself completely to their vision. Otherwise I would only do what I could do, again and again. I want to be taken by someone in a different direction.”

— Catherine Deneuve

94. “You’re better off not preparing, because what you prepare will always be wrong.”

— Catherine Deneuve

95. “You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration.”

— Catherine Deneuve

96. “I have been involved in some films other actresses would not have done.”

— Catherine Deneuve

97. “I would have liked maybe to be in architecture or painting, something connected to the fine arts.”

— Catherine Deneuve