The applause was so loud and insistent that I had to respond with several encores. I was numb with happiness, when it was over, I knew that this alone must be my life and my world.
Leni RiefenstahlHow awful for them [Hitler's victims] to see those swastikas, the SS men and the SA - people we'd never thought of as criminals.
Leni RiefenstahlI am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.
Leni RiefenstahlI feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life.
Leni RiefenstahlI can simply say that I feel spontaneously attracted by everything that is beautiful... It comes from the unconscious and not from my knowledge... Whatever is purely realistic, slice of life, which is average, quotidian, doesn't interest me... I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.
Leni RiefenstahlWhere is my guilt? I can regret. I can regret that I made the party film, `Triumph of the Will,' in 1934. But I cannot regret that I lived in that time. No anti-Semitic word has ever crossed my lips. I was never anti-Semitic. I did not join the party. So where then is my guilt? You tell me. I have thrown no atomic bombs. I have never betrayed anyone. What am I guilty of?
Leni Riefenstahl