Quotes

I'm strong and opinionated. Those qualities brought me a lot of problems since I was a little girl in school, saying 'I don't agree' and fighting with the children. It's part of my curiosity for life.

There's so much more I want to do. I refuse to get to 50 and wait at home for the phone to ring. In Spain, actresses work until they are old. That's my plan.

I love Salma Hayek, we've been friends for a really long time. I admire how she has come such a long way and always remained grounded and who she is. She never compromises to follow her vision and she is loyal. Such qualities only mark the great stars.

I love the Italian culture, it's a beautiful culture. I love the language, the Italian people, their music, their attitudes... I just love it! Sometimes, I think I'm an Italian trapped in a Spanish woman's body.

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else's point of view.

[on acting] In terms of the work, it always seems like it's a first date. I mean, every time I go to the movie set and start a project, I feel the same feeling - the butterflies in the stomach, not having control over it - because acting is like that. That's the beauty of it. You can always keep learning. There's always more.

I came to Los Angeles for the first time in 1994. I spoke no English. I only knew how to say two sentences: "How are you?" and "I want to work with Johnny Depp.".

My first audition was for the woman who became my manager and still works with me. She was testing around 300 actors. I was 14 years old, and she had me read a scene from Casablanca (1942), which is impossible to do when you are that age. But my manager asked me if I wanted to work with her, and she sent me on some castings. When I was 16, I got Jamón, Jamón (1992). Of course, I had to lie about my age. And I had to lie to my parents about the content of the script.

[on Johnny Depp] When I first came to America I only knew two phrases in English. One was, "How are you?" and the other was, "I want to work with Johnny Depp." Then after I worked with him on Blow (2001), I learned how to say, "I want to work with Johnny Depp again!" Thank you for your friendship, your talent. You are such an inspiration to us all.

The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.

I came to New York to study ballet and English.

[from her Oscar acceptance speech for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)] Thank you so much to the Academy. I want it share this with my fellow nominees and with the amazing ensemble of actors that I had the privilege to work with in this movie. Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character. Thank you for having written over all these years some of the greatest characters for women. And I cannot talk about great female characters without thanking my friend, Pedro Almodóvar, for having made me part of so many of his adventures.