[When asked at age 79 why her Paris apartment was located up many flights of stairs at the top of the building:] It's the only way I can still make the hearts of men beat faster.

Each action of the actor on the stage should be the visible concomitant of his thoughts.

The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions.

The theatre is the involuntary reflex of the ideas of the crowd.

Slow down? Rest? With all eternity before me?

He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.

What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.