Cruz: "I have a strong personality, and I say what I think."

Cruz: "I am living for every day and trying to have less fear, less worry. But I have always worried about everything; it's in my nature. It's the thing that makes me suffer the most."

Cruz: "My ambition is to be happy."

Cruz: "The most difficult thing in the world is to start a career known only for your looks, and then to try to become a serious actress. No one will take you seriously once you are known as the pretty woman."

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

Cruz: "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."

Cruz: "I like roles that people don't recognize me in."

Cruz: "There is a part of your brain that has to stop when you're acting. You have to be in the moment and dare to fly. Words can't be on your mind."

Cruz: "I was 11 when I first said I wanted to become an actress, and everyone looked at me as if I had said I wanted to go to the moon."

Cruz: "I've worked myself to exhaustion before. I was so young, and I thought I could do everything; it was just too much for my body and my mind."

Cruz: "I always feel scared and insecure on a film set. I don't know any other way."

Cruz: "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."

Cruz: "Awards are great, as you get to meet up with friends and colleagues from your industry - a sort of reunion."

Cruz: "All those cliches, those things you hear about having a baby and motherhood - all of them are true. And all of them are the most beautiful things you will ever experience."

Cruz: "The most important lesson I've learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did."

Cruz: "I am amazed about how everyone wants to know about my love life. They whisper to me, 'Tell me the truth? Is it true?' Who cares? Because we have this job, we are to say to everybody what we do, or with whom we sleep? It's a bit absurd, but that's why everybody lies so much."

Cruz: "Maybe I'll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it's not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now."