Sylvia Kristel

“My mother was Protestant, and in her mind life was more about work and obligations and responsibilities.”

“I like this other world, this forgetting of myself. The actor works in order to escape, not to find himself. You become an actor by leaving yourself, and then you have to keep acting. How tragic!”

“I was a silent actress: a body. I belonged to dreams - to those who can't be broken.”

“The only thing I was trying to portray was serenity. Also, innocence, vulnerability and elegance.”

“I have a talent for happiness. I look with the eyes of a painter, and I see beauty.”

“The film was made in 1973. It was a golden time for people to experiment without risking, for example, AIDS. Today one has to be so much more careful and I don't think a character like that could exist now.”

“I'm very glad to have something to be passionate about. I can't imagine a life without passion.”

“I learned so much from other actors and they definitely didn't treat me like some sex bomb or bimbo. I felt fully accepted in the regular movie world. I didn't feel categorised.”

“No one has taken my heart in their hand. I haven't given it... I have lent myself, rented myself out, but never given myself.”

“Self confidence for me is a fragile fleece.”

“People don't assume John Wayne shoots people and rides a horse on weekends.”

“I love to invent - avoiding the truth. I need to dramatize.”

“I am a divorced child, of divided, uncertain background. Within this division I - supposed fruit of their love - no longer exist. It happened nearly forty years ago, yet to me, nothing is sadder than my parents' divorce.”

“Of course it's difficult to top a box office success like Emmanuelle, so it will always be my most important work. But that's nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I have to be careful not to be too proud in life, because there is always room for improvement.”

“As a painter you're responsible yourself, 100 percent. In film, you have the editor, the director, the other actors. It has the advantage of not being solitary.”

“I make a big pot of pasta with vegetables, and I stretch it out for the week.”

“I don't expect too much from the afterlife, I think that I know very well what pain is. When I think of the end of my life, I think mainly: I didn't do nothing, but I could have done more.”

“Back then I didn't think a woman like that, or a relationship like that, could exist with complete freedom and no jealousy or possessiveness. I thought it sounded too good to be true and I was certainly convinced it wasn't the life for me!”

“You're much better off as a love goddess to die around the age of 40.”