Milla Jovovich

Milla: (On what she wants to achieve I want to achieve everything I need to achieve. I want to be able to love what I'm doing and respect myself while I'm doing it.

Milla: (On the parts of her life outside of music and acting) My mom definitely raised me with the capacity and the competence to do a lot of things. I love music, and that's the way I express myself the best. I'm learning to play all these other instruments. I'm picking up the violin and the harp. I do my reading. I used to draw a lot, but I don't draw as much anymore. Apart from that, I'm relaxing because we've been hectic for a while.

Milla: (explaining why she named her daughter Ever Gabo) The name Ever is a Scottish boy's name. Gabo is a mixture of my parents' names. The first two letters are after my mom's first name, Galina, and the last two letters are after my dad's first name, Bogie.

Milla: (on her engagement to writer and director, Paul Anderson) He got me an antique ring and he proposed four years ago but we broke up in between ... We haven't set a date yet. We talk about it casually.

Milla: When you're able to survive a martial arts workout session, it definitely builds your stamina and builds your tolerance.

Milla: I just want to make one really good movie a year. And when I die, to know I was honest as an artist.

Milla: Before, being a model, it was just a job, and I was making fun of it. But today, I take my career more seriously. The fact that a reader may buy an Armani item because she'd seen it on me in a magazine is very important to me. So much so that I intend to launch my own label.

Milla: At the age of 16 I was already dreaming of having a baby because I felt myself to be an adult, but my mum forbid it. Right now, I feel like a teenager and I want to have fun for one or two more years before starting a family.

Milla: If I'm not overloaded, I become depressed because I feel like I'm doing nothing with my life. Last year I lost a friend, a guitarist from my band. He was only 21 years old. Since then, I think a lot about death and about all the things I want to do before disappearing. So I never rest.

Milla: Rather than go to the gym, I would prefer to do martial arts because the time goes by quicker.

Milla: During the day I force myself to at least eat some salads rather than rubbish, and a steak in the evening. In fact, I eat to basically satisfy my hunger. I hardly have the time to appreciate a meal, and I'm everything, but a gourmet.

Milla: Modelling killed me.

Milla: From now on, I approach the cinema as a business woman. I intend to be in more action movies because, apart from Angelina Jolie, no other actress stands out in this genre.

Milla: My private life has been the subject of much jabbering. Perhaps this slightly scandalous side of me people find entertaining!

Milla: When you're able to survive a martial arts workout session, it definitely builds your stamina and builds your tolerance.

Milla: Before, being a model, it was just a job, and I was making fun of it. But today, I take my career more seriously. The fact that a reader may buy an Armani item because she'd seen it on me in a magazine is very important to me. So much so that I intend to launch my own label.

Milla: I try to find my place in this movie. What you see in the film is very intense, but as soon as somebody says "CUT!", I can laugh and tell a joke without problems. Right before recording I run around the set, warm up my voice and perform a few breathing exercises to put myself in the right mood.

Milla: I'm a hard-ass when it comes to my work, and I'm not scared to take risks. On a social level, I'm not hard at all. Maybe with certain men, the ones who say, "Hey!" That kills me. Anyone who says hello by pointing a finger at me I will hate for life. There's no second chance.

Milla: I think I'm a very pretty girl. I'm never going to pretend to think otherwise. There are even days I feel I'm fabulously hot and sexy. I'm grateful for my looks. My family is doing well because of them. I can make career choices and turn down movies because of them and I have been making money from them for 17 years. My looks are who I am.

Milla: I love making independent movies, and that's pretty much what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my years.

Milla: It's going to seem idiotic to say this, but I think that at a given moment we all need a place to ourselves where we can refuge ourselves and cut ourselves off from the world.

Milla: People say that I'm always late, but that's a myth.

Milla: I worked like hell [on The Fifth Element]. No band practice, no clubs, no pot, nothing.

Milla: I think that's one of the only reasons God created celebrities. To help those who can't help themselves.

Milla: [on Resident Evil] If this movie was made in America they would have had a guy and we would have been his harem or entourage. Big studios don't trust that women will bring in that kind of audience, Tomb Raider was really an exception to the rule. Most of the time, if you make a big action film there has to be a big action guy in it. It's very European to trust a woman to play that kind of a role.

Milla: Scratch a Russian, and you'll find a peasant.

Milla: I'm not really easy to live with! There needs to be unlimited patience and unconditional love. Men I've known before loved my independent spirit and were proud of my success, to the point that they'd become jealous of the time I devote to my career.

Milla: I'm very against underage modelling. I would never allow my kids to do it.

Milla: You think you're so grown up, so adults take advantage of you. When I was 13, my mum didn't know about certain things that would go on even though she was with me all the time. I'd say I was going off to get a Coke and I'd be making out with some older guy in a corner.

Milla: Even the action movies that I've made, there's always been a personal reason why I've made them. Like Resident Evil, that was my brother's favourite video game. I would never have said yes to it, but my brother was like, 'Milla, it's the coolest thing ever.'

Milla: Our atelier is like a nuclear reactor of clothing. It's like a space where things can explode. You know when people put on the glasses to watch the bomb go off, that's how I feel about it. It's like, 'OK Carmen, let's put the glasses on, push the button. Ready? Whoosh!'