oldhollywood:

Oriana Fallaci: So then, Sean, let’s finish with a little test: the names of three men & three women whom you admire, for whom you feel respect & envy.

Sean Connery: The first is Khrushchev. That sense of humor of his, that appetite for living, that non-conformism. Great man. The second is Stanley Matthews, the soccer player. He’s 51, and still plays soccer. I’d like to be him. The third is Picasso: to me he has the same virtues as Khrushchev.

As for women … let’s see … women … let’s see … odd: you know, I can’t think of a single one? Yet I like them a lot, I respect them, I esteem them, I often find them superior to men. I’m one of those who still find women devilishly attractive, irreplaceable…well, that must be why. I mean that, whenever I see a woman, I can never get away from the sex element. The liking and even the admiration, even the respect, I feel for a woman always has sexual origins. A character like me, who loves life, appetite, and strength, can’t get away from sexual desires. And so, when he stops to assess a woman, he can never make out where that thing finishes and pure admiration begins. Do you see what I mean? Khrushchev doesn’t provoke any sexual desires in me, nor does Matthews, nor does Picasso. With them there isn’t that alarming little complication. Alarming. Isn’t it?

Fallaci: Eh, yes. Alarming.

Connery: In fact, I find women very alarming, very worrying. Always. And picking out one I admire and nothing else … let’s see … yes: Greta Garbo. For her talent, her dignity, her silence. And yet, no, even in her case I can’t get away from the fact that if I’d ever been close to her … well … in short … I’d have been very attracted to her, apart from her talent, her dignity, her silence. So, after all, the choice doesn’t stand. Phew! Tell you what we’ll do: we’ll forget about the women for a moment and take the names of two more men. One is Hitchcock and the other is Noel Coward. And now let’s go and have a beer.

- Paris magazine, March, 1965