Well, I really didn't enjoy some of the movies I did when I was young.
— Marianne Faithfull
I once asked my father what he wanted me to be. To my horror, he said, 'sociologist.'
I've got a lot of little compulsive problems, and I've thought about it a lot. And one of the things I ask myself is, 'What are the things I can do that won't hurt me and will help me?' The first answer is work.
I never saw myself as beautiful. I can look back and see it now, but then? Never.
I think it's a great shame that America stopped being a republic and became an empire.
Sometimes you just have to get a shock to grow up and wake up, and I've had lots of shocks because it's as though I don't learn the lessons, so something new comes and hits me.
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.
For some people, marriage may be very groovy. For me, it really isn't. I don't think it really is for most people anyway. Most people are not very happy.
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'm alive today, I'm well, I'm working, I'm still creative. What more can I say, really?
I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to be there for my friends. I want to be able to love the person in my life. I want to work. I want to do something I've never done, which is save money. I've never bought anything. I have nothing.
I'm glad to say my father never felt ashamed of me, but my mother probably did.
I was anorexic in the '60s and '70s, although it wasn't called anorexia then. I thought people would be nicer to me if I looked very small and delicate, so food wasn't high on my agenda. But it is now.
I know for a fact that Heaven and Hell are here on Earth.
I do yoga. I do tai chi. I do a lot to keep my body and my spirit together so I can work.
I focus on the individual and not seeing this great big monster, 'the press.'
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.
I think you have to really, really want to be a film star.
All I have to do is what's right for me.
I get all dressed up with that Marianne Faithfull face, and the next thing I know, I'm blurting out things that I shouldn't, trying to get attention when, really, I've got everybody's attention already.
I'm interested in time, fame, death, beauty, truth, all those things.
I don't talk about my private life.
Of course I have regrets; I'm not stupid.
My happiness is very fragile.
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.
I've learnt to accept what has happened to my voice, I suppose, but I do wish it didn't sound quite so rough.
France has been very good for me. It has given me a very worldly-cool attitude.
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 food that's never let me down in life is porridge, especially with milk and maple syrup, which is delicious. Paris isn't a porridge place, but I can buy it in London when I'm there and bring it back with me.
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.
I'm not sure yet what my higher mission is, but I have a feeling it might be great. Before, I thought my mission was death, but now my mission is life.
I do have a strong sense of God. It's impossible to explain what I mean when I say that, of course.
I wish people didn't just think of me in the '60s. I'm not any era.
The equipment you've got really dictates what you're going to do. When I started touring, there were no monitors, so I had to take the sound from the hall, and of course it was on a delay, so I would sing, and then I would hear it back, but later. It was very weird.
I love the Stones, but I've gone to a lot of gigs.
I'm sick of being self-referential. I don't want to do any more songs that can be accused of being personal.
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 come from a very left wing Socialist family, anti-war and anti-empire.
To be diagnosed with cancer was a frightening thing, and my first reaction was sheer panic, but I was really fortunate that the cancer was caught at such an early stage that I didn't need chemo or radiotherapy. But I know that cancer is a chronic condition, and once you've had it, you're on the list, because it can come back.
I've got quite a good brain and all that, which I've never had to use in singing at all.
When you lose your reputation at 19, you lose everything.
When I found out my mother wanted me to marry a rich man, I instantly didn't want any rich man.
The only time I ever really consider retiring is when I get fed up with the press. Which is often.
Life has changed. People have changed. They are more forgiving, less inclined to rush to judgment. And I have changed.
I'm a Capricorn, and they flower late.
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.
All I can say is I've been lucky with my body. Well done, little body. I praise it and say, 'You're very good.'
I'm having a great life, and I want to go on having one.
I've done everything I want to do and gone everywhere I want to go.
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.
