I always thought my days spent in darkness [as a child she had cataracts and was unable to see for nearly four years] gave me a very special sensitivity. Much later, when I really wanted to hear, really 'see' a song, I'd close my eyes, and when I wanted to bring it out of the very depths of myself, out of my guts, out of my belly, when the song had to come from far away, I'd close my eyes.

Drugs are a carnival in hell.

To be successful in my native France, where people speak the same language and understand me, is nothing.

I think you have to pay for love with bitter tears.

My conservatory is in the streets. My intelligence is instinct.

For me, sleeping is a waste of time. I'm afraid to sleep. It's a form of death.

I was hungry. I was cold. But I was also free. Free not to get up in the morning, not to go to bed at night, free to get drunk if I liked, to dream... to hope.