Quotes from Marion Cotillard

My parents always told me that if you want something, you can do whatever you have to do to get it. As long as it's not against someone else.

The first time I saw 'Macbeth' was not the entire play. It was at acting school, and this student was working on Lady Macbeth's soliloquy. I felt something very special, and I knew then that I would one day experience Lady Macbeth, but I always thought it would be on stage and in French.

I was very surprised that they would ask a foreign actress to be Lady Macbeth, but I felt it was an opportunity that I couldn't miss. Having the opportunity to play Shakespeare in English - that wouldn't come twice.

You have to find the place where you abandon everything of yourself. Then you can let something else happen.

I don't think that I'm that sophisticated. Maybe I'm not aware of it, I don't know.

If you search and search and stop searching, then ultimately you'll find what you need. It is the experience of living.

When a script moves me, I find that I immediately understand a character. Of course not completely, but I do understand.

If I just wear something because I feel like myself and I'm comfortable, that's okay - and that goes even for more edgy things. But if I try too much, or if I even try, it doesn't work. It doesn't feel natural, and I feel very uncomfortable.

I never take anything personally when it doesn't concern me.

I always thought that I was a terrible writer. And I started to write songs. And I started to like what I was writing. I think it's a new way for me to express things that are closer to myself than when I play a role because, of course, it's really not me.

Insecurity is very common among actors. When I started giving interviews and talking to people that I didn't know, it was a nightmare. I've learned how to deal with interviews and insecurity; I've gotten used to it.

I have busy nights.

I think the Earth and everything around it is connected - the sky and the planets and the stars and everything else we see as a mystery.

I don't live with my role, I'm a really normal person.

I always want to abandon myself to my characters, and I never knew if I was actually abandoning myself to Lady Macbeth. I was scared to enter the darkness. Almost every day, I would go back home and be like, 'Oh my God, what am I doing?' I had no idea.

The first thing I have to do to erase my French accent is think that it is actually possible, whereas for the moment, I think it's not. I have a lot of work.

The first thing, the main thing, about how I work is I need to understand the character.

It's always a weird feeling being on the red carpet, but the more I go, the more I try to connect myself to the here and now. And breathe. That's the way I make the experience a good one. If I think too much - if my head is somewhere else because I'm stressed out - it shows.

'Do I have a purpose.' Right. And of course you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't be on Earth. I really strongly believe that if we're here, it's for a reason.

There is something strange about me. I don't ever feel at ease in a group of people. I have to fight hard to overcome my fears.

Im so lucky to have the opportunity to work with some directors and some actors I wouldnt have dared to think I would work with one day.

I'm able to tell when I'm in a bad place or super-sad and move on. When you're stuck somewhere, you need to change something to shift the energy.

I was raised with the idea of beauty in a different way. To me, it is something that really comes out of you and surrounds you.

As an actress I just want to tell beautiful stories.