Leslie Caron

“I seemed to belong to three countries: I had an apartment in Paris, a house in Hollywood, and when I married British theater director Peter Hall, I moved to London.”

“No matter what you do, your person comes through. You can't completely change yourself on the screen. I had in mind someone colder and more in control, but I couldn't do it. This human note just crept in and maybe it's better.”

“In order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness-otherwise how would you know when you're happy?”

“I got as little as a $75 a week when I started.”

“I know a lot of Americans in Paris who have married Frenchmen. They keep bringing up their experience, the clash of civilizations, the clash of personalities.”

“The American is wholeheartedly for love and romance at any cost.”

“It's very difficult to marry into another civilization.”

“You have actresses like Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, who have roles specially written for them.”

“The studio system collapsed only when Elizabeth Taylor charged $1 million for Cleopatra.”

“The most important thing is to remain active and to love what you are doing.”

“I hate biographies which say, I was called to such and such an office, and he offered me so and so, and I got so and so money. I find that very tedious. The best biographies are written by other people.”

“I toured the Middle Eastern countries with the ballet.”

“I longed to break out of the system and do different roles.”

“I went to the Tokyo Film Festival in Japan because I love Japanese cinema.”

“In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness - otherwise how would you know when you're happy?”

“I think it's the end of progress if you stand still and think of what you've done in the past. I keep on.”

“When I did small films like Lily and Buenos Vista, everyone thought my career would be ruined.”

“There were many good actresses in my time like Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, but I was the only dancer.”

“We were all ruled by the studio system. I signed a contract for seven years.”

“I regret not doing a film that I was offered with Clark Gable because the script was not good enough.”