Gina Lollobrigida

"Sequels are always made for purely commercial reasons, i.e. to allow producers to make more money. However, they are extremely damaging to an artist's career."

"Gossip only lasts a few days, it dies down very quickly and the truth prevails once again."

"(About the reasons for her marriage to Milko Skofic) Well, there was a reason... I had a misadventure, like many women. There was a wretch who took advantage of me, a footballer from Lazio. He drugged me, I was a virgin... What was I going to report him for? In those days... Now he's dead. I tried to convince myself that nothing had happened, but you don't forget something like that. Afterwards, I got together with Milko. It wasn't that he wanted to marry me, I wanted to, to have a normal life, I felt ruined... It was certainly a marriage of convenience on his part. He played tennis and counted money, that's all he did. When it became legal to do so, I divorced him."

"[Which recognition do you value most?] The four stamps that San Marino had printed with my face on them. It's a privilege reserved for kings and queens."

"I wasn't passionate about cinema. I did it to help my family. We were displaced in Rome and needed to eat. Those were the years when actors were picked up off the street. Some people stopped me as I was leaving school and asked me if I wanted to be in films, and I said no, that I wasn't interested. Then they offered me a thousand lire a day, and that convinced me to become an actress."

"(About acting) I think a little training is good, but I also believe that instinct is what wins out."

"There is less emotion in cinema today. There are stories that unfold in a setting of absolute futurism, and when I see them, I change the channel. In Italian cinema, when it was number one in the world, and that's what I was lucky enough to do, there was more emotion. People would watch a film and identify with it, they would cry and get emotional. There was something in the films that touched our emotions."

"A beautiful woman, even at seventy, is a beautiful woman, damn it, and if she has talent, you have to admit it, not despise the beautiful woman."

"What makes me angry is that they have always tried to take something away from women, and this continues today. It is always men who move forward and women who are always one step behind, and this is not fair. We should have a little equality."

"(About Marilyn Monroe) When we met, the first thing she told me was that they called her the American Gina Lollobrigida. She was surprisingly modest, and I immediately liked her."

"She makes Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple."