Quotes

Animals are good, better than humans really, animals do not betray you.

Why is everyone afraid of Magnani? I am harmless.

[1968] They don't write for Magnani any more. That is why I refused so many scripts over the years.

The problem is the language. I cannot speak profound in English. I can say yes-no, but I cannot explain why I like this or that in English.

[on doing an English-language play] I don't think it is right. I think an actor must play in his own language. I'm afraid. I don't have the courage. If I had lived long in America it would be different.

[on her beach house, Villa Magnani] I love this house. It is built with my own hands . . . all my money is here. Here I feel at peace. Everyone - the people, the animals, the chickens - is free here. Crowds bother me. They gather for my autograph. I think this place is fantastic. I'm not being hemmed in by people here.

Love is a woman's best friend. I'm always in love. It is impossible to live without love and unpleasant to die without it.

My face is what it is. If I tried to improve it, I might make it look ridiculous.

[on her marriage] I wanted to be a good wife.

You had to get up at 8 o'clock in Hollywood. I had never done that in my life before. It was very unexpected. But Hollywood was a very gracious city and not the infernal machine I had feared and which so many believe it to be. There was an atmosphere of affectionate comprehension, of gentility, of cohesion.

[on her films] I like them all, beautiful or ugly. A mother is not good only to her handsome children.

I don't care whether I work or not. Money? Thanks be to God, I have no need for it. I'm not a millionaire, but I have invested the money I have earned.

I have been told I was born to wear a mask - to tread the boards and express myself to the public rather than to a camera. Those who have confidence in the camera find it betrays them, leaving them with sorrow, delusion, a great fatigue. The theater is living. At 46 it is time to live a little.

I hate to see actresses grow too old in films. Some stars, like Bette Davis, never grow old. Alas, others do. But with actresses like Davis and myself, we must have important character roles to play. Otherwise there is no reason to appear on the screen.

[on winning the Academy Award for Best Actress] I feel just as if I had built the Colosseum. It's all an earthquake inside.