Top 60 Penelope Cruz Quotes

Unfortunately, I am very aware of editing and I look at the monitor too much. Sometimes the monitor can become your worst enemy because you can, consciously or unconsciously, start editing yourself.

I never felt, ‘Oh, I think I look good.’ I always tend to be more in the insecure side. And I thought that has always been a way to protect myself. Because I don’t trust the good feelings that can come from that.

I was 11 when I first said I wanted to become an actress, and everyone looked at me as if I had said I wanted to go to the moon.

Awards are great, as you get to meet up with friends and colleagues from your industry – a sort of reunion.

When I was 16, I got ‘Jamon, Jamon.’ Of course, I had to lie about my age. And I had to lie to my parents about the content of the script.

I won’t go to places where you’re going to find more attention. I go to the opposite.

I used to dance for seventeen years -classical ballet, which was very disciplined. I like yoga and Pilates, but I don’t have the discipline to go to the gym.

I remember playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them – I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else.

Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.

I love the Italian culture – it’s a beautiful culture. I love the language, the Italian people, their music, their attitudes… I just love it! Sometimes I think I’m an Italian trapped in a Spanish woman’s body.

It’s great working with my sister, because we are very close as a family – my brother, my sister and myself. We have a great relationship.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve worried too much. It always bothers me because sometimes you end up worrying more about the worry and you are not resolving things that are right there in front of you. I have been like that all my life, and it’s hard to change.

I really dislike it when the media asks young actresses, normally when they’re about 23, how they feel about ageing. There are other things to worry about.

There are so many designers that I love, and I’m so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them. As an actress, you get to go to these events and wear their things – it’s fun, but it is what it is. I don’t put a lot of time into it, but I respect what they do.

I remember playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them – I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else. My parents also took me to ballet school, and there I think I was able to start communicating those feelings or emotions – I danced for so many years.

When I was 16 or 17, when I started, I never even considered not doing a project. I just wanted to work.

I want my son – and my kids, if I have more – to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible. The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work that we do doesn’t give anybody the right to invade our privacy.

Making a living out of acting sounded like science-fiction when I was growing up. I didn’t know anyone around me who lived from anything related to art.

I’m strong and opinionated. Those qualities brought me a lot of problems since I was a little girl in school, saying ‘I don’t agree’ and fighting with the children. It’s part of my curiosity for life.

Sometimes you will do a close-up for a scene in the morning where you are totally distraught, then shoot the rest of that scene seven hours later. How do you hang on to that feeling all day without burning up, without going so far that you have nothing left to give when the cameras roll again?

I want to have babies one day but not right now. When I do it I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life.

The most important lesson I’ve learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did.

Maybe I’ll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it’s not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now.

I want to be remembered as somebody that tried to respect her integrity as an artist and as a person. And I don’t want to be in any box. I don’t want to be one thing.

My ambition is to be happy.

I had a very curly perm in the ’80s, thanks to the ‘Way You Make Me Feel’ Michael Jackson video. I liked the girl in it.

I was raised Catholic, but then I discovered Buddhism, and I used to have a boyfriend who was a Scientologist, and they are all good religions that help people. As far as I’m concerned, you can have all three religions at once and it’s okay!

I love ballet, and it’s a little boring for me to go to the gym because I’m used to the dancing discipline – it’s really hard but much more fun.

I really like the Caribbean. Anyplace in the Caribbean. I get there, and I feel like a monkey – the perfect state.

I don’t do Twitter, Facebook; none of that. My email I do from my Blackberry or my iPhone.

When I start a movie, the first day, I feel like a duck.

I remember when I got my first opportunity to work in America, I didn’t speak a lot of English, so I only really knew my lines for the movie I was doing.

One thing that I am proud of: I am really capable of laughing at myself.

Especially when you are advertising a product, I talk to the photographer and we create a character – it always gives you more freedom because it makes it less about yourself.

Johnny Depp is so special that he is like a Martian. In fact, that’s what I call him, Martian.

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else’s point of view.

All those cliches, those things you hear about having a baby and motherhood – all of them are true. And all of them are the most beautiful things you will ever experience.

I always knew I wanted a family because of the way I grew up. Family has always been the most important thing.

I came to New York to study ballet and English.

I’ve worked myself to exhaustion before. I was so young, and I thought I could do everything; it was just too much for my body and my mind.

I love New York, but being there the whole year, it gets a little crazy with the speed and rhythm of things.

As an actress, I really love people like Anna Magnani and Debra Winger. I also think there is nobody better than Meryl Streep.

I am a big fan of photography, more of being behind the camera – so when I get the opportunity to work with such great photographers, I always try and learn from their technique.

There is a part of your brain that has to stop when you’re acting. You have to be in the moment and dare to fly. Words can’t be on your mind.

I have had a very singular kind of life since I started working so young, so I am very used to traveling, working, taking time for myself.

I came to Los Angeles for the first time in 1994. I spoke no English. I only knew how to say two sentences: ‘How are you?’ and ‘I want to work with Johnny Depp.’

I have fear, always, on the set. Insecurity to the point where the first week I always think I could be fired. I think that’s a fear most actors have.

I love Spanish food. My diet is the Mediterranean diet, which is good food. I eat well.

I only drive in movies. I know that’s very weird to hear for an American. I have a weird relationship with it. I know how to drive, but I never went to take the test.

There’s a lot of work that goes into it – if you think about how many collections a year that Karl Lagerfeld has to do, with Chanel and all the other things he does – you can’t do that unless you are working 18 hours a day. It’s really a lot of hard, hard work.

I have stepped off the relationship scene to come to terms with myself. I have spent most of my adult life being ‘someone’s girlfriend’, and now I am happy being single.

I am someone who worries a lot. I’m always worrying ‘what if?’ Now I’m a mum – there will be worries for the rest of my life, but they’re not about me anymore.

I have a little bit of an addiction to work. So I’m always hiding in the bathroom with my Blackberry to work when I’m on holiday.

I was very superstitious when I was a teenager, and I had to fight against that because it made me feel anxious.

My parents owned a hair salon, so I learned a few tricks there. I can cut people’s hair – if they let me.

The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you’re asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.

In my everyday life, I just wear jeans, t-shirts and trainers – if I can go barefoot, that’s even better. But for the events I have a stylist, and in two hours we have selected a whole outfit.

Calcutta is like another world. People there are very special and grateful.

When I read a script, I try not to judge the characters. I try to have an open mind and really see what it makes me feel.

There are so many designers that I love, and I’m so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them.