Jane Birkin Quotes

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

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

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. ~ Jane Birkin

I only like boutiques. ~ Jane Birkin

I think I did a lot of humorous films when I was young, and they were No. 1 films. ~ Jane Birkin

But who wants an easy life ? It's boring ! ~ Jane Birkin

Nothing has ever touched on what fun childhood was. Summer holidays were bliss. We made home movies, with real stories in them. My father had such charm and charisma, and made everything so funny. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

There is a song of Gainsbourg that Jane Birkin sang, and the words are beautiful in French. It says, "Le jeu et les moi." It's impossible to translate, because it has a very nice sound. It sounds so lovely in French. So I took that because it was the subject: I and myself and myself and I. Which is, in a way, boring, because it is a contradiction. ~ Agnes Varda

Truthfully, I guess I would like to be remembered as a great writer and a kind person. I wouldn't mind if an expensive bag were named after me, like Jane Birkin. ~ Mindy Kaling

It's usually a jolly good trick to pick up a local tour guide. They can tell you all the anecdotes that make a place interesting. I'm one for rushing off to museums at the crack of dawn, eating fabulous things on terraces for lunch, and enjoying long dinners on balmy evenings. ~ Jane Birkin

If you fall in love with a country and its people, that makes any country warm to you. ~ Jane Birkin

People always like things that seem exotic. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

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

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. ~ Jane Birkin

I feel most comfortable in an old pair of jeans, Converse, and a man's jersey. My best friend cuts my hair with kitchen scissors. ~ Jane Birkin

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

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. ~ Jane Birkin

I always loved the style of Jean Seberg, Jane Birkin and Marilyn Monroe. ~ Helena Christensen

I think there is an extreme charm in the French, and actually it's their bolshiness that makes them such fun. ~ Jane Birkin

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

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. ~ Jane Birkin

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

I put some red stuff on my mouth and cheeks so I look healthy - any old red lip pencil and a lip colour from Dr. Hauschka in a crushed berry tone. I never put anything on my eyes, or I look like Joan Crawford. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

When you start recognising that you're having fun, life can be delightful. ~ Jane Birkin

I don't know why people keep banging on about the '60s. 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. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

Big Ben ... hearing the chimes makes me feel at home. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

My father was a painter, so I was encouraged to take a sketchbook everywhere. Cameras are perishable, but I still have tonnes of sketchbooks from all the trips I've ever been on. It gets you by when you don't know what to give people as a gift; drawings are good souvenirs. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

I loved having a crew. I loved being the person who woke at six in the morning and knew where to put the camera. I loved watching the actresses cry, and to know that if you were clever and didn't do too many rehearsals, that it just came that way. ~ Jane Birkin

I have never written a book about my life, despite being offered purses of gold. I made 'Boxes' because I wanted to make a sincere depiction of a daughter who has lost her father, or the jealousy one can feel towards a daughter who has become more beautiful than you and whose stepfather starts to take her shopping. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

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. ~ Jane Birkin

Thank you, Jane Birkin, for providing me with infinite outfit ideas and the confidence to dress like a boy but act like a girl. ~ Alexa Chung

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. ~ Jane Birkin

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

French girls still have the Jane Birkin culture. You can go just like that, without makeup, without managing your hair. ~ Emmanuelle Alt

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. ~ Jane Birkin

Any film I see at two o'clock in afternoon with my mother seems to cast a strange spell that means we both come out sobbing. ~ Jane Birkin

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

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. ~ Jane Birkin

Jacques Doillon wanted me to be in his film, 'La Fille Prodigue,' and there I was, expecting, for some reason, this great bearded man, when a splendid looking red-Indian style man appeared at my door. I said no to his film because I knew that if I said yes, I would run off with him. ~ Jane Birkin

A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again. ~ Jane Austen

The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to my wife ... under cover of his asserted 'Revelation.' ... Smith told his wife Jane the Lord had commanded that he should take plural wives, to add to his glory ... Joseph asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband. ~ William Law

With barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises ~ Jane Austen

[N]obody minds having what is too good for them. ~ Jane Austen

All day the blanket snapped and swelled
on the line, roused by a hot spring wind ...
From there it witnessed the first sparrow,
early flies lifting their sticky feet,
and a green haze on the south-sloping hills.
Clouds rose over the mountain ... At dusk
I took the blanket in, and we slept,
restless, under its fragrant weight. ~ Jane Kenyon

The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? ~ Bette Davis

City diversity represents accident and chaos. ~ Jane Jacobs

I hear you're losing weight again, Mary Jane. Do you ever wonder who you're losing it for? ~ Alanis Morissette

I am so blessed to be able to get up in the morning and go to a job I love, with fantastic people around me. ~ Jane Leeves

Jane-Sweetie, we've talked about your weight-" my mother began.
I'm only eight years old," I said. "How about I promise to be anorexic later? ~ James Patterson

She was feeling, thinking, trembling about everything; agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry. ~ Jane Austen

We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place
or not to bother ~ Jane Goodall

Even so, in the midst of this complicated love, there is a holy union. ~ Lorna Jane Cook

We will not quarrel for the greater share of blame annexed to that evening," said Elizabeth. "The conduct of neither, if strictly examined, will be irreproachable; but since then, we have both, I hope, improved in civility."
I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: 'had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.' Those were your words. You know not, you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me;–though it was some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice. ~ Jane Austen

Logic is a wonderful invention. It is so wonderful, people often mistake it for reason. Reason, however, requires sense. Logic requires only consistency. ~ Jane Haddam

I give everything to my work, and I like complex roles, characters that aren't obvious. I've been very lucky so far, and I'm dreaming of working with directors like Jane Campion, Susanne Bier and the Dardennes. But the gods will decide. ~ Eva Green

I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill. ~ Jane Austen

I made some studies, and reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it. I can take it in small doses, but as a lifestyle, I found it too confining. It was just too needful; it expected me to be there for it all the time, and with all I have to do
I had to let something go. ~ Jane Wagner

There seems a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labor of the novelist, and of slighting performances which have only genius, wit and taste to recommend them. ~ Jane Austen

I don't tend to be a nitpicker when I'm watching movies, so as long as something is true to the spirit of the original, that's very much what we got for. You try to never do something that the original author wouldn't have done themselves. ~ Jane Goldman

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble. ~ Jane Austen

The little cakes were iced in white, with golden yellow icing roses on top, and instead of ice cream there was sherbet that was a rainbow of colors in each dish. ~ Jane Louise Curry

While politicians, clergy, creators of advertisements, and other worthies assert stoutly that the family is the foundation of society, the nuclear family, as an institution, is currently in grave trouble. ~ Jane Jacobs

The bad news is that my thin melanoma has something called mitosis, which means the cancer cells are dividing and multiplying even as I write. My thin melanoma has already spread outside of the tumor and into the deep layers of skin. ~ Jane Green

I loved you when you wore that hideous yellow gown. I loved you later that evening, when you stood amongst the dunes with the wind rippling through your glorious hair and the moon reflected in your eyes. I loved you when you burst into my bedchamber the following day. I loved you even more when you appeared at the inn that evening.' He allowed a brief smile to curve his lips. 'I loved and adored you when I held you in my arms and made love to you. Like Whitney with his Janette, I have loved everything about you in every moment of every day since the moment I first laid eyes on you, Jane! ~ Carole Mortimer

You do not credit her for what she has brought to your life. If you do not honor her for who she is and what she is capable of, she will not feel the desire to grow into anything else. Why should she, if what she has offered thus far has been met with ingratitude and contempt? ~ Mirta Ines Trupp

Not long before my mother died, I found a long-lost portrait of Jane Franklin's granddaughter, Jane Flagg, aged nine - oil on canvas - in the basement of a public library not a dozen miles from my mother's house. ~ Jill Lepore

I like doing both comedy and drama. I'm not really feeling more drawn to one over the other. I also like dramedies. I like movies and TV shows that are mixtures of the two. ~ Jane Levy

If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist ... I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism. ~ Jane Fonda

I'm a Jane Austen/Jane Eyre kind of girl. ~ Maggie Grace

And all the hurts and scars / Of everyday were healed, and I would sleep / Safe with the good-night memory of stars. ~ Jane Merchant

As it happened that Elizabeth had much rather not, she endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every entreaty and expectation of the kind. Such relief, however, as it was in her power to afford, ~ Jane Austen

Within the silence, expansion, and sustained day by day concentration, I grow permeable. ~ Jane Hirshfield

Everybody thinks that once you reach the top, you can lie back on a divan with a goddamn mai tai. No. Wrong. Success is not a mountain climb. Success is a treadmill. ~ Susan Jane Gilman

I wanted something seismic to happen at the end. I wanted him to wake up so we could somehow forgive each other, say we loved each another, move on with some sense of closure, for I knew this would be the last time I saw him, but he didn't wake up, and nothing was said. ~ Jane Green

If you allow yourself, you can become stronger in the very places that you've been broken. ~ Jane Fonda

Oh, the world needs those standing on the Bridge, For they know how Eternity reaches to earth In the wind that brings music to the leaves Of the forest: in the drops of rain that caress The sleeping life of the desert: in the sunbeams Of the first spring day in an alpine meadow. Only they can blow the dust from the seeing eyes Of those who are blind. ~ Jane Goodall

I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of the things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families. ~ Jane Fonda

My business was to declare myself a scoundrel, and whether I did it with a bow or a bluster was of little importance. ~ Jane Austen

JEAN
Boy, would I like to see you give some old harpie the three in one!
COLONEL
Don't be vulgar, Jane. Let us be crooked, but never common. ~ Preston Sturges