Marianne Faithfull Quotes

You know the first objective is to get out of your hometown, second objective, get it together in the capital. The awful thing about left the school, is that you'd feel you'd be important. It would matter what you did.

I once asked my father what he wanted me to be. To my horror, he said, 'sociologist.'

Penitentiary songs have been a love of mine for years. They are so wonderful.

I live a very nice life. I have a wonderful time. But it's not lived drawing on a full level. I'm relaxed, cool, and enjoying it.

France has been very good for me. It has given me a very worldly-cool attitude.

The nice thing about us lot is that what we do is of no consequence. We don't do things that are important; we spend our lives doing things which are not important. That's what's nice about us, we're not pompous. We never do anything very bad that's gonna change the world. We're not serious, we're butterflies. We live for a day.

Relationships have a nasty habit of reversing themselves; whatever has been done to you in a previous involvement you'll do to the next person you're involved with, if you get half a chance.

My father belonged to a commune, and the food was ghastly. My idea of food hell is the salad cream they'd pour all over bits of lettuce, cucumber and tomato. It was just disgusting.

When I found out my mother wanted me to marry a rich man, I instantly didn't want any rich man.

I serve black tea, which I call Froggy tea. And I have green teas and all sorts of nice teas. I'm serving tea all the time.

I think it's a great shame that America stopped being a republic and became an empire.

I don't talk about my private life.

Maybe the most that you can expect from a relationship that goes bad is to come out of it with a few good songs.

Working with David Bowie was very interesting, but I couldn't surrender to it. I should have let him produce a record for me, but I'm very perverse in some ways. He's brilliant, but the entourage were rather daunting.

It has been an extraordinary experience and, in many ways, extremely positive.

It's always a good idea to get yourself a famous, rich, and groovy young man. That's one of the best-known methods of furthering your career.

There are so many myths out there about Marianne Faithfull, I had to, um, detach. But I can turn it on because Marianne Faithfull is really an attitude, you know.

I shoot my big mouth off; it just pops up! I have to learn to edit myself.

Never apologize, never explain - didn't we always say that? Well, I haven't and I don't.

My first job was singing at the Hammersmith Odeon. It was years ago, so I can't remember who I was performing with. I was a sort of anti-climax after two hours of heavy rock-'n'-roll. Seventeen years old in a white dress. It was the first time that I got applause. Wonderful, that noise in my ears.

All I have to do is what's right for me.

I wish people didn't just think of me in the '60s. I'm not any era.

If I let myself sink into depression, I won't be able to get out. And then I'll be awfully unhappy. I just have to turn my face to the light and walk on. And trust that things will be all right.

I do yoga. I do tai chi. I do a lot to keep my body and my spirit together so I can work.

I have to be able to love somebody except myself and the theater.

I know for a fact that Heaven and Hell are here on Earth.

Well, I really didn't enjoy some of the movies I did when I was young.

I never like photos of myself in the beginning. I live with them for three months, put them in a drawer, take them out and look again. I hate the way I look, but of course it's really not that bad.

I'm a Capricorn, and they flower late.

The way I choose to show my feelings is through my songs.

I think you have to really, really want to be a film star.

I'm alive today, I'm well, I'm working, I'm still creative. What more can I say, really?

I'm never, never sure which way to go. I'm full of unsureness. That's been a habit for years. I never really want to commit.

If you analyze the bad times you find that it's because you wanted to have a bad time.

I was told that I had very likely been clinically depressed for a long, long time, probably since I was 15, or even 14. It explained, to me at least, a lot of my behaviour over the years.

I never saw myself as beautiful. I can look back and see it now, but then? Never.

The really explicit phrase is doors of perception.

I don't like the compression on compact discs. It's lacking in air, and it's lacking in majesty.

I don't see decadence really as what you do, because I don't do much at all that is decadent in my life. But I still am decadent. It's a state of mind, I think.

I've got to where I've always wanted to be. I just feel more myself, and I've learned not to care what other people think. It's happened slowly, very slowly. But I did it.

My story is really an affirmation of my strength and my luck. To live with a great artist like Ted Hughes or Mick Jagger is a very, very destructive role for a woman trying to be herself. In fact, it can't be done.

The only time I ever really consider retiring is when I get fed up with the press. Which is often.

I've got quite a good brain and all that, which I've never had to use in singing at all.

When you are 18, 19, 20, you're used to being photographed all the time, in a certain way. So, the narcissism becomes almost out of control. And the way that young women are photographed, they become addicted to this feedback of the image.

I want to do movies, but I want to do something that's good. I don't want to make any more films until I feel that I'm ready for it. I want to have good work, and a very elegant life. I believe you get what you want.

I love the Stones, but I've gone to a lot of gigs.

I'd love to make more money in America, that's the heart of it. I make much more money in Europe. It's a shame. I'm trying now to make a profit on this next tour, and I'll be much happier.

I've made a contribution to my time and my generation through being myself, not through what I shared with the Rolling Stones. It's very bad for me and very dangerous to see myself as someone who had an influence on this song or that song. It immediately puts me in the position where my worth is dependent on how much of my soul I shared with Mick Jagger, and it's just not valid. You can use the gossip you've heard. You're not getting it from me.