Wit & Attitude Quote by Anne Parillaud

There is a hard-won sobriety in that opening clause, "Knowing what I know of love" - a line that treats romance less like destiny and more like data. Parillaud frames love as something you learn the way you learn a city: by getting lost, by paying for mistakes, by noticing patterns you once ignored. The speaker isn't naive anymore, and the sentence carries the quiet authority of someone who's been proven wrong enough times to finally trust her own instincts.

"I hang back" is the key move. It sounds modest, even passive, but the subtext is control: stepping away before the story swallows you. In a culture that often sells emotional risk as virtue - jump, fall, surrender - she makes restraint feel like a form of courage. The usual romantic script rewards people for wanting more; Parillaud suggests the real test is admitting when wanting more becomes self-deception.

Then comes the sharp turn: "because I don't like to lie to myself". Not "because I'm scared", not "because it never works", but because self-honesty is her non-negotiable. The line implies past versions of the self who cooperated with fantasy, who edited red flags into plot twists. It also hints at the particular pressure on women, especially in public life, to perform desire on cue - to be the kind of person love happens to. Parillaud refuses that performance. The intent isn't cynicism for its own sake; it's a boundary drawn with emotional intelligence, making the least glamorous choice - caution - sound like dignity.