Of course it’s difficult to top a box office success like Emmanuelle, so it will always be my most important work. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

I’m very glad to have something to be passionate about. I can’t imagine a life without passion.

I still have agents in France, Los Angeles and Amsterdam who call and suggest parts. I’d love to keep on doing both painting and acting until the end of my days.

The film was made in 1973. It was a golden time for people to experiment without risking, for example, AIDS. Today one has to be so much more careful and I don’t think a character like that could exist now.

Back then I didn’t think a woman like that, or a relationship like that, could exist with complete freedom and no jealousy or possessiveness. I thought it sounded too good to be true and I was certainly convinced it wasn’t the life for me!

You’re much better off as a love goddess to die around the age of 40.

I love to invent – avoiding the truth. I need to dramatize.

I don’t expect too much from the afterlife, I think that I know very well what pain is. When I think of the end of my life, I think mainly: I didn’t do nothing, but I could have done more.

Men still assume I must be like the girl I played in ‘Emmanuelle.’ John Wayne was never accused of killing people during his free time, but I’m forever stuck with the image of ‘Emmanuelle.’ The truth is, I should have got an Oscar for that role because I’m nothing like that woman.

As a painter you’re responsible yourself, 100 percent. In film, you have the editor, the director, the other actors. It has the advantage of not being solitary.