Charlotte gainsbourg quotes

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think, being an actress, you know that you're getting old. I'm 44. I mean, an agent said when I turned 40, "It won't get better."

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

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.

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

I came to understand that people come and see you because they like you. They don't come to throw things at you.

I think it's a legend that Lars von Trier is such a tough person to work with. I really didn't experience any of that. Of course, he's difficult in the sense that what he asks for is difficult. For my part in Antichrist, I suffered a bit. But it was the part - it wasn't him. He wasn't cruel. On the contrary, he was very kind. You know what you're up for when you read the pitch.

It's difficult for me to write in English as it's not my first language, but French is even worse because of my father's influence and because the comparisons that I - not even other people - would make.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I don't have a career plan. I've never done that. Things happen accidentally and I've been lucky.

With a film you go with the script that's already written. And I've never thought of a project, a film that would come from my own desire. I don't think I can do it. I need someone else's desire to be able to do something. With a record, it is completely different, it's a collaboration with another artist, but I'm willing to go into intimate places with no masks on.

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

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.

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.

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

It rarely happens that I get to work again with the same director. I had such a wonderful time on Antichrist with Lars von Trier, that I was going to do whatever he proposed me to do. When he sent me the script of Christmas, I just loved it. I think I love anything he writes.

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

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.

Each time I changed, it was as if, on purpose, I didn’t want anyone to know too much about me, which of course now I regret, because I closed myself to everything. But it was my way of dealing with things.

I don't like being on my own. I'm happy meeting people and collaborating.

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

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

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

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

I don’t have tons of scripts where I don’t know what to choose and I’m trying to calculate. It’s either I read something and I have an impulse to do it, or in meeting someone, I want to work with them, but it’s always been very obvious.

It was very liberating to be able to sing in English. It had a different resonance, different images. It was like being a stranger in a foreign land, which was helpful.

I felt that people would criticize everything. I was so scared about playing Paris. I was very much aware that the greatest concerts my father and mother had done were there. I was sure people would be very tough.

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.

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

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.

I can't do things by myself. I need a motivation, and the motivation is always the director's. I find my freedom inside other people's barriers. It's easier for me to find myself inside someone else's tracks.

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.

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

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

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.

I would love to be able to do a film. I would love to be able to focus on what excites me in watching actors.

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

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

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 have ideas of subjects and atmospheres that I love. I either want to go in a tougher, stronger direction or do the opposite: simple ballads.

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."

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.

Maybe, in the back of my head, I'm thinking I have to do as much as I can. It'll stop.

Style for me is a casual way of putting something on. It's not thought out but needs to suit your way of life. Now I like wearing the same sweater over and over again, then taking it off when it's smelly.

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.

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

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

I was really nervous about people booing, because my mother had gone for a film 20 years earlier and had a terrible time with people booing, whistling, so I knew that in Cannes people can get aggressive.

I don't want to feel that I'm a singer or an actress - being able to say that those are just experiences is what I enjoy.

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

I used to hate being recognised.

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.

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.

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. 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 know. It's so easy to say no to stuff, and then, after a while, it's very hard to go back in.