Jane Birkin Quotes

“A Birkin bag is a very good rain hat; just put everything else in a plastic bag.”

“But who wants an easy life? It's boring!”

“Everything I wear doesnt put me in the league of women. If I were a boy, I could look a lot prettier than a lot of boys I know.”

“He painted me when I was young because he was in love with me, but now that he has loved me he doesn't paint me anymore.”

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

“I didn't really think of myself as being a muse.”

“I don't know why people keep banging on about the '60s. I was very conventional because I came from a conventional family and I didn't go off with different people – I rather wish I had now, seeing all the fun everyone else was having.”

“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.”

“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 know what it's like to have someone coming home who looks at you not in the way they used to in the old days, and I've seen my own face contorted with sadness and rage in the mirror.”

“I love the French very much, and I think they know that. I've been adopted here. They treat me as one of their own.”

“I never have more than one bag at a time. I think one is already quite enough. Also, I hate changing bags, so I never have the thing of having ten bags.

Any bag that's with me will take the same course as I will. It will take the same airplanes and will be squashed in the same way and will be used as a cushion in the airports.”

“I only like boutiques.”

“I put some red stuff on my mouth and cheeks so I look healthy. I never put anything on my eyes, or I look like Joan Crawford.”

“I remember being married to John Barry and trying to be the best wife in the world.”

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

“If I were mayor, I'd invite everyone to have free boat trips on the river and free balloon rides over the city. I'd let the elderly in residential homes wander free.”

“If you fall in love with a country and its people, that makes any country warm to you.”

“Keep smiling, it takes ten years off!”

“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.”

“My look is a cocktail. I'm not as nicely turned out as the french, but I don't care like the English.”

“My mother was right. When you've got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust.”

“Nothing has ever touched on what fun childhood was.

Summer holidays were bliss. We made home movies, with real stories in them.”

“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.”

“People always like things that seem exotic.”

“There's no fun in a bag if it's not kicked around, so that it looks as if the cat's been sitting on it – and it usually has. The cat may even be in it!

I always put on stickers and beads and worry beads. You can get them from Greece, Israel, Palestine – from anywhere in the world.

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

“When I made mistakes, people used to laugh. I could have learnt better, but I've always liked to make people laugh.”

“When I was at school I used to scream in trains, in those concertina things between the carriages. I used to try to be so good that sometimes I couldn't bear it any more.”

“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.”

“When you start recognising that you're having fun, life can be delightful.”