"If I had not passed through trial - through passion, one could say - through these years so painful and so rich, I don't believe I could take on my life and my career as I do today"
About this Quote
The line “so painful and so rich” captures the actor’s bargain: experience becomes material. Rich doesn’t mean pleasant; it means usable. It’s a reminder that in performance-driven industries, especially for women who are scrutinized into self-surveillance, private life is often treated as public inventory. Adjani turns that dynamic inside out. Instead of the culture extracting drama from her, she suggests she metabolized it and now owns the results.
There’s also a career subtext: longevity in cinema isn’t just talent, it’s stamina. “Take on my life and my career” reads like someone finally steering rather than surviving. The conditional “If I had not…” implies she once couldn’t; the present-tense “as I do today” signals a hard-won executive confidence. Coming from an actress whose image has long been wrapped in intensity, vulnerability, and tabloid myth, the quote functions as self-authorship: not an apology for excess, but a declaration that the mess was formative, and the control is earned.
Quote Details
| Topic | Overcoming Obstacles |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Adjani, Isabelle. (2026, January 17). If I had not passed through trial - through passion, one could say - through these years so painful and so rich, I don't believe I could take on my life and my career as I do today. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-had-not-passed-through-trial-through-61993/
Chicago Style
Adjani, Isabelle. "If I had not passed through trial - through passion, one could say - through these years so painful and so rich, I don't believe I could take on my life and my career as I do today." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-had-not-passed-through-trial-through-61993/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I had not passed through trial - through passion, one could say - through these years so painful and so rich, I don't believe I could take on my life and my career as I do today." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-had-not-passed-through-trial-through-61993/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.





