Leni Riefenstahl Quotations

I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life.

I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.

Through my optimism I naturally prefer and capture the beauty in life.

The applause was so loud and insistent that I had to respond with several encores. I was numb with happiness, when it was over, I knew that this alone must be my life and my world.

I set about seeking a thread, a theme, a style, in the realm of legend. Something that might allow me to give free rein to my juvenile sense of romanticism and the beautiful image.

I want to see, that's all. This is my life. I want to see

My desire to dive with an oxygen cylinder was so intensive that I decided to use a trick. Registering as Helene Jacob, I lied about my age: instead of 1902, I wrote 1922 in the application forms. My rejuvenation not withstanding, the scuba instructor eyed me skeptically; he was probably thinking: She'll never make it.

Your deeds exceed the power of human imagination. They are without equal in the history of mankind. How can we (the German people) ever thank you?

In 1934 people were crazy and there was great enthusiasm for Hitler. We had to try and find that with our camera.

Reality doesn't interest me.

I [seek] a style in the realm of legend. Something that might allow me to give free rein to my juvenile sense of romanticism and the beautiful image.

They kept asking me over and over again whether I was having a romance with Hitler. Are you Hitler's girlfriend? I laughed and answered the same way each time: No, those are false rumours. I only made documentaries for him...

Everywhere I went I experienced the same success, which transcends words.

I am a great admirer of Robert Vavra and love his beautiful photographs and books. He is a wonderful artist, a poet...

I naturally prefer and capture the beauty in life.

How awful for them [Hitler's victims] to see those swastikas, the SS men and the SA - people we'd never thought of as criminals.

I was fascinated by the effects that could be achieved by editing. The cutting room became a magic workshop for me.

I can simply say that I feel spontaneously attracted by everything that is beautiful... It comes from the unconscious and not from my knowledge... Whatever is purely realistic, slice of life, which is average, quotidian, doesn't interest me... I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.

Where is my guilt? I can regret. I can regret that I made the party film, `Triumph of the Will,' in 1934. But I cannot regret that I lived in that time. No anti-Semitic word has ever crossed my lips. I was never anti-Semitic. I did not join the party. So where then is my guilt? You tell me. I have thrown no atomic bombs. I have never betrayed anyone. What am I guilty of?