There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard.

Everyone's pet is the most outstanding. This begets mutual blindness.

Since it's now fashionable to laugh at the conservative French Academy, I have remained a rebel by joining it.

The ultimate politeness in art consists of speaking only to those who are able to uncover and measure its relationships. Anything else is symbolic, and symbolism is merely transcendental imagery.

The poet Paul Éluard says that to understand my film version of Beauty and the Beast, you must love your dog more than your car.

I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.

It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.