8½

"Accept me as I am. Only then can we discover each other."

"Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence."

"I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I'm the one without the courage to bury anything at all. When did I go wrong? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same."

"My Dears... Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone."

"All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be."

"The truth is: I do not know... I seek... I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive and look at you without shame."

"It's better to destroy than create what's unnecessary."

"You see, what stands out at a first reading is the lack of a central issue or a philosophical stance. That makes the film a chain of gratuitous episodes which may even be amusing in their ambivalent realism. You wonder, what is the director really trying to do? Make us think? Scare us? That ploy betrays a basic lack of poetic inspiration."

"Destroying is better than creating, when we're not creating those few truly necessary things."

"Life is so full of confusion already, there's no need to add chaos to the chaos."

"Pace, il produttore: Why piece together the tatters of your life - the vague memories, the faces... the people you never knew how to love?"

"Marcello Mastroianni - Guido Anselmi"

"Claudia Cardinale - Claudia"

"Anouk Aimée - Luisa Anselmi"

"Sandra Milo - Carla"

"Jean Rougeul - Carini, il critico cinematografico (The Writer)"

"Rossella Falk - Rossella"

"Barbara Steele - Gloria Morin"

"Guido Alberti - Pace, il produttore"