Arousing an emotion is even more difficult now than it was when I began. It’s not so easy to surprise people. I no longer have the carefree ability I had at the time of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort”. Experience can be a handicap. But audacity is also about not thinking, forgetting, and I feel I’ve always had that. I’m amazed that people are amazed when I agree to play an alcoholic in “Place Vendôme” or act in films by Leos Carax and Philippe Garrel. It’s not hard to understand, though. If an actor doesn’t take risks, she or he is washed up! Some of the rushes of “Place Vendôme” and parts of André Téchiné’s movies strike me as cruel, but they’re done in full knowledge. What does it matter? They’re not pointless. They express the arc of that character. The pleasure of being an actress resides in playing both a Marianne who sinks and a Marianne who is reborn. I am an actress! It seems to me that every two or three years, I’m rediscovered. Maybe that’s what keeps me going. (Catherine Deneuve in “Libération”, October 7th 1998)