Eric Cantona Quotations

I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.

We all seem to be about aggression and greed. It's a massive pressure that affects us all.

Children go where they find sincerity and authenticity.

Sometimes you surprise the goalkeeper and sometimes the goalkeeper surprises you. In my career, I tried to do more of the first than the second.

If you have only one passion in life - football - and you pursue it to the exclusion of everything else, it becomes very dangerous. When you stop doing this activity it is as though you are dying. The death of that activity is a death in itself.

Sometimes you get submerged by emotion. I think it's very important to express it - which doesn't necessarily mean hitting someone.

On sand, you can never be sure of anything. An ordinary shot can take a wicked deflection at the last moment.

My ancestors were fighters, something I have inherited.

He who has regrets cannot look at himself in the mirror.

It is enjoyable to make things visible which are invisible.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

I always planned to retire when I was at the top and at Manchester United I have reached the pinnacle of my career.

I see the world become so uniform. Everybody has to be the same. I like people who are different.

The pressure people put on themselves and the rivalry between the teams is much more marked. And I think that's a good thing. As long as that rivalry remains within the spirit of competition, it con only spur everyone on.

You can feel very quickly as a prisoner of your past, of the memories.

We can be eaten by techniques and forget what we have inside of us.

My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan.

If someone is too perfect they won't look good. Imperfection is important.

Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

I prefer to play and lose rather than win, because I know in advance I'm going to win.

I have to wear clothes but I don't like to give an idea of what I am with clothes.

We won the European Championship last September and now the world title. That is some year for French beach soccer! Now comes the hard part. We have to keep improving and that's difficult because it's tough to do better than winning a world title.

In football you have an adversary; in cinema that adversary is yourself.

I'm proud of what I achieved there, but a life built on memories is not much of a life.

You need a particular talent only to want to please. I don't have this talent.

I think I have a sense of mischief and that I can laugh at myself.

When times are difficult, I tell myself, 'I'm just passing through.'

I'm just enjoying my life at the moment.

Manchester United is stronger than anybody in the world.

I didn't want really to be involved in a normal soccer club.

I don't take life so seriously I can just play with life.

Some people need to stay at the top. They are afraid to re-start from zero because they fear the critics.

Sometimes in life one experiences an emotion which is so strong that it is difficult to think, or to reason.

Being on stage isn't so tough compared to the football pitch.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown in to the sea.

I think life is a big game we play.

I found leaving Manchester United very, very hard.

I know that I have a face, a look, people aren't used to seeing. A presence.

I like to stay at home and make cinema in my head.

I observe the world and the people surrounding me.

My father's parents were from Sardinia and my mother's from Barcelona.

I don't need to be involved with a game watched by millions of people to be fulfilled.

I'm lucky to have the privilege of being able to choose what I want to do.

It is unacceptable that people often have to make huge sacrifices just to find a place to live, a roof over their heads.

It's my country but I don't want to know about France - I was born there but I feel English.

The French have only negative things to say about everything and everyone.

We all have common frailties but we need to treasure friends more.

A home is crucial, the foundation of a stable family.

I don't want to be in 'Terminator'. I don't want to go to Hollywood.

I have a car but it's not important.

I like to be fascinated by the people I photograph. Sometimes I don't admire them but I'm interested in them.

The revolution is really easy to do nowadays.

Often there are players who have only football as a way of expressing themselves and never develop other interests. And when they no longer play football, they no longer do anything; they no longer exist, or rather they have the sensation of no longer existing.

You retire, but you're still aching to play. But in order to play, you have to resist certain temptations, and train hard. And I just didn't have the desire to do that any more.

The real fans of football come from the working class. Now they cannot afford to come and watch the game.

What is the system? It revolves around the banks, the system is built on the power of the banks, so it can be destroyed through the banks.

I try to find different ways of expressing myself. Without that I will die.

You can lose in cinema too if you don't put on a good performance.

Actually, I wanted to act even when I was still playing football.

Being French, to me, is first and foremost being a revolutionary.

I always knew I had to work hard.

I always wanted to play against the best.

I don't think we can be entirely happy seeing such misery around us.

I started beach football in Monte Carlo when I retired from football in 1997. I liked the game very much.

I stopped playing football because I'd done as much as I could. I needed something which was going to excite me as much as football had excited me.

I think it's better to be involved in one or two movies a year.

Some films I say no to and they end up working very well, but I don't care, I just want to do something exciting.

When you arrive in England for football it's a paradise.

For me, I don't like it when there is too much interference in our lives. We're not children. It is our own life in our hands.

We knew that you don't get to be world champions without a struggle.

I manage a team, for beach soccer. I'm the coach. Player, coach.

Fowler was so good at 18, and four, five years later, at 23 or 24, finished, not even for England, not even for the best teams. Finished. Completely. Out. Why?

My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer it when I kicked the hooligan.

This is quite an elitist film and I'm not sure that every Manchester United fan would like it. It's not an action movie that you might go to to relax.

Not really. I watched some Chelsea games and I don't really like the way they play.

I love Rooney as a player. But I am a bit worried. Rooney can become the best player in the world at 25, 26, if he knows that in football you need to be strong, train hard, go to bed early, be careful what you are eating, what you are drinking, what you do in life.

I don't think the world of football is so serious. It's important to have distance about things and about yourself. If we believe we are kings or gods, we become crazy. We all know it's a game and we all enjoy it together.

Every man who has an idol or admires someone can recognise its themes. It's not only a film about the relationship between fans and idols, it's also a love story, a story of a man who is depressed, who has problems in his relationship with his teenage step-children.

With my two brothers, Jean-Marie and Joel, I wrote a two-page story and wanted to make some kind of movie. We met a French production company, called Why Not?, and the first name we put on the list was Ken Loach. It was a dream for all of us. So, we tried and we met Ken and Paul Laverty, his writer, and they read the two pages and were inspired by that to do something. Paul had the freedom to do his own story - and he wrote his own story, which is better than the one we'd written.

I would like to compare football and cinema. I think it's very similar. It's two games... different games. You have to work very hard and find the confidence to enjoy it on the pitch or in the film.

An artist is someone with the gift to light up a dark room.

Every experience makes you a man.

I don't care about the past.

I don't know where my medals are.

Great businessmen are creators.

Football lost its excitement for me.

I was always being creative. I could never have played a defensive role because I would have been forced to destroy the other player's creativity.

Domenech is the worst coach France have had since Louis XVI.

You are constantly battling against your own weaknesses to make a good performence.

I live to feel myself in danger.

There were moments - I would be daydreaming - I would imagine scenes, even if there wasn't a camera around. In my head, I was acting.

I didn't study; I live.

In England, your life is your life.

Anyone who is different or is slightly out of the norm, is considered crazy.

Become a legend? But I am already.

I would love him to save me a place in his team, George Best that is, not God.

Ferguson, as a manager, and Ken, as a director, are very similar. One's a great manager, the other a great director, but both have a lot of humanity and a lot of humility. They always give you the energy... with Ferguson when we played a game it was like it was his first game - he's so passionate and gives you ambition every time. And Ken works the same way - they're very similar.

Whatever happens, there are always things you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have scored a third. That's perfectionism. That's what makes you progress in life.

Messi, he's exceptional. When you watch him, you feel there's a child inside him and he is making some childhood dream come true. He's a Great Player, not only for today but also tomorrow.

When I was a child I had a dream to become a football player. I always played as I played when I was a child. I tried to improve. I never dreamt of becoming a professional football player, I dreamed just to play with the best players in the best team. I never dreamed to be paid to play. I would have paid to play an FA Cup Final in front of 80,000 people in Wembley. I just tried to play the wonderful game that football is. So, I hope young players will still have this dream.