[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.

Legend remains victorious in spite of history.

I have, thanks to my travels, added to my stock all the superstitions of other countries. I know them all now, and in any critical moment of my life, they all rise up in armed legions for or against me.

Energy creates energy. It is by spending myself that I become rich.

For the theatre one needs long arms... an artiste with short arms can never make a fine gesture.

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

Slow down? Rest? With all eternity before me?