Quotes from Jane Birkin


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I always hang things on my bags because I don't like them looking like everyone else's.


I think it's always good to read local authors or relevant books. In Egypt, I studied hieroglyphics and read everything about the mummies.


Robert Louis Stevenson... I'm focusing on the late short stories that I was ignorant of. I always thought he was a boys' author, but he's not at all.


Without my specs on, I think I look really great; then I put them on, and I scream. But at 62, I still think less is better. I use Clarins foundation, but I don't put it everywhere - I hate that covered look - so just on the sides of my nose where the veins have gone bang.


I use Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, £12, on my lips, and my arms if they're sunburned. I'm past caring that sunbathing is dangerous.


David Attenborough... has that wonderful, breathy voice, and he's always so fascinated by what he's seeing. There's nothing about him that I can't find attractive.


I don't much enjoy travelling, but I have always longed to take a slow train to Russia. I'd like to go alone - like writers do - with only a pencil and piece of paper as company. I'd take my sketchbook and note down all the wonderful details of other travellers.


My first husband, John Barry, was a composer. I couldn't believe that this sophisticated, talented genius chose me and not any of the other girls. I was so flattered, so excited, so in love with him. Of course, my parents were horrified, as he'd been married once and had a daughter with the au pair girl.


When my father died, my mother came back from being Mrs. Birkin to being Judy Campbell. She was a stunning actress. She came out of her shell. She was herself again: this very independent, funny, intellectual lady - and was able to perform again, which was her life before meeting my father squashed it out.


I can't be the only person in the world to have three different husbands, and yet those relationships are never talked about.


I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries.


One of the things I've discovered, thanks to the Japanese, is that you should enjoy yourself. In the old days, I used to think: 'Oh, never be satisfied, never admit to being happy.' But there's no curse in being happy.


I had a baby at 19 and was a grandmother by 39. Now, my children lend me their children to take them off to Brittany. It's divine. I'm quite exceptionally lucky. I've never had a week without having all three of my daughters on the telephone.


I grind my teeth and keep my thumbs in so tight that I've dislocated them, just not to scream. Sometimes as an actor one is lucky enough to be asked to scream.


I don't like getting older, but there's nothing I can do. Hitting 60 wasn't great, but I think I was lucky in not being that beautiful; it can be really cruel on people who have been stunning.


When I arrived in France aged 20, I marched against the death penalty, which was an unpopular thing to protest against at the time.


My distinguishing feature is the gap between my teeth. I had to wear a brace because my teeth used to stick out like guns from a fortress.


I'd rather live on my own than live with a face that looks at me with the wrong eyes.


I only like boutiques.


At school, I used to hear, 'You're a half-caste.' They'd laugh at my figure and say, 'Are you a boy or a girl?'