Gainsbourg: "It's normal to judge yourself and to be your own worst critic. It keeps you in a kind of reality."

Gainsbourg: "Self-questioning is my method."

Gainsbourg: "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."

Gainsbourg: "It's fun to try things, and not to go where people expect you - I find that quite exciting."

Gainsbourg: "I've never thought of myself as being an actress or being a singer. I'm uncomfortable with both."

Gainsbourg: "Everything that [deals with] being isolated I've felt very close to. ... Isolation [is] something ... that I understand well."

Gainsbourg: "I'm always dissatisfied. Always. Not so much with the work, more with myself. I have so many doubts that they constantly pull me down but now I can see that this is my way of working. [It] is my method."

Gainsbourg: "I used to hate being recognised."

[On being unwilling to tour to promote an album]

Gainsbourg: "I keep thinking, I didn't write the songs, I don't play an instrument, I'm not an extrovert performer, so why would people come? What would they see?"

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

Gainsbourg: "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."

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

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

Gainsbourg: "I'm always wearing the same things: jeans and an old pair of boots. ... I don't like making too much effort [with my appearance]."

Gainsbourg: "I didn't [try] to become [a performer]; it just happened when I was really young and then continued."

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

Gainsbourg: "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."

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

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

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