I don't go for films that exalt violence. I don't want them in my house. Sometimes my children see them. But nowadays they do it so truthfully and with so much passion that you are shocked.

I was so skinny, they gave me the nickname stechetto - the stick. I was tall, thin, ugly and dark like an Arab girl. I looked strange. All eyes. No flesh on my bones.

i have no regrets. regret only makes wrinkles.

Cooking is an act of love, a gift, a way of sharing with others the little secrets -- 'piccoli segreti' -- that are simmering on the burners.

Though poor and anxious to work, I refused to alter anything. They would take me as I looked or not at all.... Eventually I profited by looking like myself and not like what was fashionable years ago with certain film technicians in Rome.

It [winning Oscar] is the most important event in the career of an actor, an extraordinary moment, beautiful. Some people live their whole life just to win an Oscar.

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.