Vincent Cassel Quotes

I've always loved the idea of changing myself, wearing costumes and disguises. It takes you back to being a kid, to dressing up.

People pretend to be nice, people pretend to be smooth, and polite and everything, but this is only an appearance, because the way we're built as human beings is only in paradox and contradictions.

Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go.

Good guys need to be a little dirty otherwise they're just boring.

It's now or never. This is simple to say, but then to live like that is not easy at all, I'm sorry. You have to be aware enough so that you can see situations as they pass in front of you and be able to catch the instant, whatever it is. Many times, you just don't see the moment when you were yawning and then it's too late.

The only person standing in your way is you.

You can't escape from what you are.

I always had the sense of being in the spotlight, being on stage, being looked at.

I'm more attracted to the bad guys. Why? Because in real life, I don't know any good guys. I know okay guys. I know polite guys. I know people who can control themselves.

People look up to Jacques Mesrine as if he were a Robin Hood, stealing from the rich, but he never gave anything back to anybody.

I'm an actor, that's what I do every day. Dressing up is part of my job. But whatever you wear you should always be yourself: never go totally with the fashion but use what there is available to be an individual.

Women? I'm still working on the subject. I haven't finished my studies. I would say I'm so happy that they're around. This is the salt and pepper of life. This is what makes me wake up in the morning - even more than work, really.

I don't really shop any more. I only do it when I have to. I think it is very overrated.

Cinema is entertainment, and people go to the movies because they want to feel good and forget about everything.

When somebody is talking to you about something terrible on set with lines, and you believe what he says, sometimes it gives a strange vibe, because you wonder when that person is talking if he's talking about something that really happened to him and he's using the character.

I'm a little angry in life.

The thing is, as an actor, I get bored a little bit. I love to act. And between action and cuts, when you work for somebody great, it's wonderful and I still love it. The moment where you create, that instant is still magic to me. But, all the rest, I get bored with it - all the waiting, and the fact that you have to make appearances, that you have to share your life.

I wear a lot of wigs as Jacques Mesrine. He'd wear multiple wigs and take them off one at a time to rob three banks in one hour.

I used to be more self-conscious about style because when you're younger, you want to exist, you want to show everything you do.

If the guy behind the camera is not good, the pictures are bad. It's still you, and it's the same lines and everything, but it doesn't work.

When you have a bunch of scripts that you have to read, the less you have, the better it is, because otherwise, everything is already planned and I think that's a terrible feeling.

I'm producing more, but I think to direct, one has to have a burning desire, and that's not me. I'd rather do something else.

I wanted to be an actor to act, and now, being an actor, you have to dress up, you have to be nice, you have to be smart, you have to be sexy, you have to be ready.

I liked the idea of working with Jean Reno and Mathieu Kassovitz; there was something logical for me. I thought it was a good thing to do. Actually, The Crimson Rivers movie was a big success, and it was one of the biggest successes I ever had in France.

I worked with young directors all my life, only young directors.

If kids really made all the parents better, there wouldn't be crazy kids in the world.

I always compare human beings to animals. It's a nice way to figure out who they are.

I love French style from the Thirties and Forties. French movie stars like Jean Gabin and Yves Montand had so much natural, effortless style.

Yes. The way people behave, the paradoxes, the contradictions. All these things we have to live with and still pretend that everything is only black or white. That, I think, is the most interesting thing in human nature. The fact that we have to do one thing and pretend something else. That’s when it becomes very interesting. If you can literally speak the way you feel, then it’s not interesting anymore. It’s when you have to lie that it becomes interesting.

There is this idea that its very different from the French point of view to work in America blah, blah, blah. But I think its different from one person to the other, not from one country to the other.

I really like romantic comedies and light movies and everything but I think - I don't know where it comes from - but when you're doing violent movies, you're closer to reality.

My father is best known for his light comedies, and Im best known for crazy bad guys with short tempers.

Neither of us are workaholics. I think the key thing is to accept that if you only exist through what you do, then you become what you do, and this is very wrong.

I come from an acting family, my father was an actor, and I had to fight my way and just create my own identity.

The minute I started being recognised, I became much more discreet.

And now I have a big house, nice clothes and I travel in first class and I love it, so maybe it's time to enjoy being a star.

I really enjoy being an actor!

I think life is short, and you can't spend time doing things just to be on set to reassure yourself that people are not going to forget about you.

Blood, especially fake, and guns, this is bullshit. It works in the movie, but on set it doesn't work for me.

It's always interesting to see a director trying different things, and on top of it, doing it right each and almost every time.

I think American audiences like gangster movies. It's part of the culture.

The idea of telling a story in reverse destabilises your ordinary moral reactions. That's one of the points of art - to challenge your preconceptions.

I have learned that acting is not about beauty.

Coming from Paris, I'd really like to live in Rio. I think it's gotten better. It's not as violent. The economy is better. The middle class is rising.

Cronenberg's a lot of fun, and that a lot of people don't know watching his movies. He doesn't take himself seriously. He's still reinventing himself.

When you see violence in movies in general, it's very quick and painless, which isn't what it's like.

I grew up watching 'Raging Bull.

It was like a dream to me to suddenly get into the market with that kind of movie, like La Haine. It actually created my identity as an actor, that thing.

They say the day you lose your parents, you start to look like them.

To work with somebody you love makes filming faster, more fun.