Quotes by Penelope Cruz

My first fear was about the devil, when I was around fire, something I saw in a movie. I think it's about pain, in whichever form it comes. I had a lot of energy as a child - sometimes too much - and I didn't know how to channel it. It was making me suffer. It was bigger than myself, and I was very young.

I remember playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them - I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else.

There's so much more I want to do. I refuse to get to 50 and wait at home for the phone to ring.

There are so many designers that I love, and I'm so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them. As an actress, you get to go to these events and wear their things - it's fun, but it is what it is. I don't put a lot of time into it, but I respect what they do.

In my house every Sunday, everybody was cleaning the house. There was always music, and everybody was dancing, sometimes naked, around the house. Not hippie, but very free.

I don’t know why, but women in a hair salon share their deepest secrets.

I want to be remembered as somebody that tried to respect her integrity as an artist and as a person. And I don’t want to be in any box. I don’t want to be one thing.

I’ve worked myself to exhaustion before. I was so young, and I thought I could do everything; it was just too much for my body and my mind.

The most important lesson I’ve learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did.

I never want to lie about my age. If I look around at the actresses I admire, they are all women who have not fought growing older, but embraced it and been proud of it – women like Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn.