I can't bear being seen naked. I'm not exactly a tiny woman. When Sophia Loren is naked, this is a lot of nakedness.

My mother taught me to walk proud and tall 'as if the world was mine.'

Without my mother's ambition, her drive, I doubt that on my own I would have pushed myself out of Pozzuoli and into the frightening world that was faraway Rome.

I have to say that since my mother died, I am not the same person anymore. My life has changed a great deal because it's really unbearable to think you can't see her anymore or talk to her anymore.

You really have to be satisfied with what you are and accept from life what it still very generously offers you - and notice it, and be glad for it.

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.

My philosophy is that it's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all.