Cooking is an act of love, a gift, a way of sharing with others the little secrets – ‘piccoli segreti’ – that are simmering on the burners.
Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.
Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.
A mother always thinks twice: for herself and for the child.
Beauty is no handicap if you don’t think about it.
The girl who swears no one has ever made love to her has a right to swear.
Beauty is how you feel inside...
The Fountain of Youth is in your mind.
Without my mother’s ambition, her drive, I doubt that on my own I would have pushed myself out of Pozzuoli and into the frightening world that was faraway Rome.
When I was a child, fear was common to my life – fear of having nothing to eat, fear of the other children taunting me at school because I was illegitimate, and particularly fear of the big bombers appearing overhead and dropping their lethal bursts from the sky.
You cannot say, because I am from Naples so I like the mixture of drama and comedy all together.
No press conference announcing a last film. I’d just steal away. Best way because, if by chance after two or three years something interesting comes up, I would not – like Sinatra – have to say: ‘Well, I’ve thought it over and decided to come back.’
My mother taught me to walk proud and tall ‘as if the world was mine.’
It’s necessary to have an energy that carries you forward. You need the will to live, to have a great curiosity. To look for the best in life, to find new interests.
I do not know if I really am a big star. And in fact that is not the most important thing for me. What counts in life is to bring about more of your own dreams. In such a way that your life becomes like a fairy tale. This is what has happened to me, it is just like that.
Jealousy is a miserable feeling. It means you aspire to something that you cannot have. Even in love, it is better to leave, better not to waste time.
I exist only because inside of me and above all else I am only and above all a Neapolitan. Naples exists inside of me, and always will. Fortunately for me there is this treasure that I have inside of me and, when I need it, then I pull it out.
Be honest about what you can get. To make a sacrifice and to get what you want you need to be very certain. In other words: always think about your objective, have a clear goal and commit to it from the heart.
Food makes people happy, it takes you back home, it says so many things that words can’t say.
Discipline is the great equalizer. If a young woman is beautiful but has no discipline, she will lose her looks as she grows older. If a plain woman is disciplined she will undoubtedly become more beautiful with time.
You have to believe in marriage and you have to believe in a relationship between two people. If you really think in your life that you have found the right person, you have to stick to it, even though there are ups and downs. If you really believe in your union, you have to nourish it and work for it, then you can really spend your life together forever.