Charlotte Gainsbourg Quotes

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

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.

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

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

I used to hate being recognised.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

I was putting all those pressures on myself.

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

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

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

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."

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

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

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

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

I don't feel I have to share everything.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I couldn't do anything else, I enjoy it so much. But I find it tough.

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

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."

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.