“I feel that I have never known nor shall I ever know how to act! Those poor women in my plays have entered so totally into my heart and head, that while I am striving as best I can to make the audience understand them, I almost feel like comforting them … but it is they who, little by little, end up by comforting me! How – and why, and at what point – this affectionate, inexplicable, and undeniable “exchange” takes place between those women and me … it would take too long and be too difficult to relate precisely. The fact remains that, while everybody else is suspicious of the women, I get along beautifully with them! I pay no attention if they have lied, if they have betrayed, if they have sinned, if they were born crooked, as long as I feel that they have wept, that they have suffered as a result of lying or betraying or loving.”
— Legendary Italian actress Eleonora Duse
