Charlotte Gainsbourg Quotes

Girls can wear jeans, cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, 'cause it's okay to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading.

You think that being a girl is degrading, but secretly, you'd love to know what it's like, wouldn't you?

In France, you're with the crew, and you have lunch with them. It's more like a family.

There were always questions about my parents; I got so fed up with that.

The more you turn down things, the more difficult it becomes to feel that the next one will be right.

I love being a beginner. It can be a terrible feeling because you're ashamed of everything you do, but it's so exciting at the same time.

I thought people would ask me really personal questions because I've shown more of myself, but it's a comedy, and people understand that it's a game we play.

There's always this thing of wanting to be elsewhere.

I hope one day I will be able to be completely myself. Maybe I'll be wilder.

I'm desperate to work again. I've often had those periods, but two years was the longest.

I wasn't getting the responses I hoped for. You can't protect yourself from other judgments.

I'm a very shy person towards my intimacy and private life.

Everyone gets the feeling that they know you and they know your life, and I felt really embarrassed by that.

Even moving around onstage seemed very artificial. But at the same time you have to make that effort in order to get back to who you are and even accept not moving, if that's who you are.

I didn't want to change my personality onstage, but I still had to build some kind of ego to be able to go up there. If not, there's no point.

I was very well paid for my age, and I could make choices, decide not to do a film for six months and wait until I'd get the right thing. Which made me quite a coward.

You don't even need the director's judgement. It's too much.

I found it very difficult to explain to someone why you did a film. It's not like having a conversation.

When you fight against your own weaknesses, there's something embarrassing about it.

Letting go of things and not being afraid of being ridiculous or over the top - I think that's the main thing for me to work on.

My father loved me and he wanted to work with me and he didn't care what people would say.

I thought people wouldn't take me seriously if too much acting was involved in the singing. But now I love the idea of mixing everything together.

I used to hate being recognised.

Before I started touring, I worked with someone to help me, even physically, because I was so shy. And you can't be shy going onstage. So I had to push myself in a direction that wasn't myself.

The English was really my mother, it was never me. Being the daughter of my father, I always felt very French.

It's nice that we have all these different films.

It's more than a job. It's very personal, so when you're hurt, you're really hurt inside.

I still find it hard to push my own limits. I know where my limits are and that I always have to push myself.

Wanting to do it was much more powerful than the fright.

I hated seeing myself on screen. I was full of complexes. I hated my face for a very, very long time.

I like to play roles different from myself so I can hide behind them.

You don't accept your weaknesses the same way that you love the weaknesses of another artist, because when they make mistakes they don't look like weaknesses.

I'd love to be able to write again, but I'm so repetitive. And it was all about fear. Never positive. Just indulgent about my sadness.

The problem with me in doing things simply is that I feel I'm not enough. It's all very embarrassing.

I wish I could just accept that I'm not that good and not be shy about the fact that I'm not that professional.

I don't feel that I've accomplished anything. I feel that it'll be better when I won't care as much, but it's so difficult to let go and accept all the wrong notes.

I don't feel I have to share everything.

I was very attached to my family when my father died. I was 19. I was about to go live with my father right when he died, so it was very intense.

I think I developed a very closed personality. I didn't really have friends. I changed schools every year.

I went on television and I wouldn't say a word; I feel so stupid when I watch them again.

The character is close to me, except that I haven't lived through those situations, so it's not completely me.

I was so lucky because I started working very young. And my father was very wealthy and I didn't need to work. I did my films.

When you love someone, you don't want them to suffer at all.

In France I'm very private, I don't like talking about my life, and I imagined that people would think that I'm now an open book.

The more sincere I could be, the better it would be for the film.

At the beginning it wasn't to do with the work, it was more the experience.

I hope I'll consider my next part, having learnt from this one.

I didn't go to acting school, so it was great to be able to rehearse for a month or two, to workshop, and be with a director who even gave me acting exercises.

I haven't found a comfortable place onstage. I'm sure it doesn't have to be comfortable, but I'm very nervous, so I don't enjoy myself.

I started so old, so the touring world will always be a foreign land for me. I'll never be someone who's "been on the road."