French Elle Magazine, 20 March 2000
- [on not winning the Ceser Award] "An award pleases for a moment, but it doesn't mean much. It's my mum who was very disappointed. She was so excited, so proud that her little girl was nominated! You write, you sing for only one person that you would like to flabbergast, to surprise. You want him to be proud of you. The main thing for me today, more than anything else, is what my family thinks. My real family is the one I built myself, my "amoureux" and Lily-Rose."
- "Before being a mum, my professional life was very successful but my private life was pretty sad and melancholy. I always thought it was a waste to live so many things, so many wonderful experiences just for me. My job excited me, it still fascinates me. But, after a certain age, when there is nobody to hold your hand I missed the point. Now, everything makes sense. If I hadn't had the chance to meet my daughter's father, if I had felt the effects of the famous biological clock, I would have, all the same, made this baby, it's very selfish, I know. Dying without having known this happiness must be dreadful. I've learned life in fast forward. Now that I'm a mummy, it's beyond all. With Lily-Rose, I have everything i could wish for."
- "I liked Lily and I like Rose. I couldn't make up my mind. It's mummy who told me: "But why don't you name her Lily-Rose?" I call her more often "mon amour" or "mon ange" than Lily-Rose. Every time someone pronounces her name, it gives me the shivers.
- [about Lily-Rose] "She looks like her father very much. She has a gap in her teeth, like me, poor girl! She is absolutely sublime and smart, but particularly, she's a good person. She is extremely generous, I can already see it. Kids are often very selfish, but her, she shares all that she has. She's very special, very strange, very very easy to get on with, she never cries. Children, even ones of others, have always moved me. Often, I wondered: "But how will it be when I'll have a baby?" You know what! It's more wonderful than I imagined."
- "We certainly talk the same as all parents. You must think I'm ridiculous, don't you? She's still more than all I'm telling you. She touches me every time. I always had the conviction that children choose us and that their soul exists even before we give birth to them. She's an angel fallen from the sky! She has chosen us."
- "I don't like very much to share my life with everybody. But it's true, yes, it's true. In this world full of dramas and horrors, we are inclined to forget that things can be just simple and beautiful. My amoureux, my daughter and I, it's the perfect triangle. We are just like one person. I don't think we could be with somebody else!"
- "It's not only because he's the man I love, but I've never met a personality as beautiful as his. I would say the same thing about him if I was only his friend. When you are happy, you want to share your happiness. We would like everybody to be as happy."
- "Since Lily-Rose is in our life, we really need nothing. Nobody else. We are self-supporting. Before I had my boyfriend and my daughter, I thought routine must be boring and insipid, it scared me a little. I was afraid that after the first three months of passion, things between us would settle down a little. It's the contrary! Our story is more and more beautiful, stronger and stronger. We organized our schedules to always be with each other."
- "I don't want to do something just ordinary. For both of them. We talk about our projects. We ask each other questions. We help each other, but it's not the centre of our life. Our life, it's Lily-Rose. I've done this job for 13 years. I couldn't play guitar because I'm shy. Not only did Johnny give me one, but he also had the patience to teach me to play it. He makes my life so much easier! I'd like to be able to help him as much as he helps me, but, maybe in that way, he needs me less than I need him. I told you. He's somebody very rare."
- [when asked if love makes you blind] "No, I assure you. Johnny has great taste. When I ask him for advice, what he says is extremely correct, smart and never the norm. He knows when I need to be put on the right track. The album that I'm recording with Mathieu Chedid is, by far, the most personal that I've ever made; Without Johnny, I would have never achieved it. He relies on me so I'm more self-confident. However, I'm a better cook than him!"
- "I know the battle for women to be taken seriously. I know that sometimes, we would like to break everything and shout to be heard. It's a fight that I know well, so as I live surrounded by men, I have sometimes had difficulty being taken seriously. But my greatest happiness today, is to wait on my man hand and foot. I want him to feel good. I like to see that he has a good meal when he comes home. I like to run a bath for him. I like to see that he has all his buttons on his shirt. I like to take care of him when he's ill. It's not a song, but, for me, it's another form of creation. However, I must stop myself because it could become stifling and I don't want to smother him. But I admit I love that!"
- "I can't stop buying clothes. My closets are full to bursting. What do I love? First, tissues and colors, purples, fushias, oranges, printed matters, soft things. Between my sister and I, it's the quarrel to swipe my mother's old tee-shirts and old sweat-shirts, quite faded, quite fine, so much they are worn out. I always made my own fashion. What I like, above all, is to feel comfortable."
- "I have a very delicate skin, I can't change product all the time. My darling and I are very regular customers of Clarins cosmetics. I almost use just them, I wash my face with the lathering gel, I use the clarifying masks, oils for the body, I love. From 15 to 20, I used too much makeup. As I thought I was hideous, I had to hide myself. I still have this dark circle around my eyes, which makes me look dead. Anyway, when people saw me without makeup, they felt sorry for me. I'm beyond all that now. It's obviously thanks to the look of the man who loves you and makes you feel comfortable."
- "Without play on words, I'd say that it was an unconscious determination. At 14, you aren't accomplished. I was strong, it's true, but I especially had much pride. When you have a real passion, you can't be easily hurt. Even if I hated those people, I'm delighted with having lived those extremely difficult years. They have given strength to me for the rest of my life."
- [what was the most important event in her career] "My first tour in 1993, after my third album. The only one I've done. That's the most intense thing I've lived. Applause has always made me cry. I'll never forget either the three months I stayed with Serge Gainsbourg. I was 17, he was 61, and I had the feeling to have in front of me a little seven-year old boy, touching and frail. I regret I didn't tell him how much I admired him, how much he was unique. I regret I didn't hug him more often. Since, I've learned to print in my memory every moment, every look, all the things which move me. Often, by over modesty, you prevent yourself from doing something. I understood it was better to have remorse than regrets."
- "I have a life I would never have dared to dream about. I would have thought I expected too much!"
The Courier-Mail, 2000
- [about her daughter] "You have to be less selfish because this person needs you so much and counts on you. But it's not painful to put yourself on the side. This little angel shows up and a simple look can erase bad sensations, any bad moods or problems."
- "It's weird, sometimes, when I think about it. Maybe I don't deserve everything that has happened to me, because such amazing people have had an interest in me, shared their work with me, and created things with me. I think: `Why?' There must be a reason for it. I must have talent somewhere, but I do think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. There is something in me that people like. Some other people hate it."
- "Whatever. It's luck, life and grabbing your destiny. I believe luck passes in front of you. If you don't catch it, it'll just go by. I think I've been able to push aside the crap and grab the good things."
- [about her album] "My heart is in it, so it's time. The general taste would be pop rock. That's a pretty basic description, I know. Pop rock could be everything and nothing. It's hard for me to speak about it yet because it's inside me, and I'm unsure of where it's going. [giggles] Just like me, really."
Nova, June 2000
- [when does she feel most vulnerable] "When I'm doing things with my hands, with my voice. Probably when I make music. In the past people used to write and produce songs for me. Now that I'm totally involved in it I feel very vulnerable - I never know if it's any good"
- [when does she feel most powerful besides being with her family] "When I go on stage. Besides my personal life, it's the strongest thing that I have ever experienced. It's something going on between you and the mike and your feet on the ground with the bass rhythms. And that space between you and the public, that thing in between. Before a show starts, I love to go and listen to the room. Even though I'm not most comfortable with my singing voice, I love to sing."
- "People have different ways of seeing themselves. Some people go to a hospital and change their nose and face. I'm not particularly comfortable with looking at myself in the mirror, but I would never go on a surgical table. It's not like a problem in my head or that I hate myself. I don't hate myself."
- "Perhaps if I were 50 I would speak differently, but I was born after women had the right to vote and to speak out and to be treated as human beings. I can't speak for a woman who's been beaten by her husband or been abused. But I love doing things for him, I love doing those woman things for him. And I love, I love to belong to him. And I love, as strong as I can be, as tough as I can be, I love to be fragile in his arms. I don't feel inferior. Because I am treated so nicely, so beautifully, maybe more than I deserve, surely more than I deserve. I can give the best of me to this person. And in my situation I don't see anything wrong with being feminine in this way."
- "When my first record came out, it was a big success and , like all big successes, it got rammed down people's throats. They took me and shoved me into everyone's head, every second of the day. It annoyed people. Maybe it's just that when something is very successful we have to destroy it. And that's what happened. I was 14 and I was not finished as a person. People always think I'm exaggerating, but for four or five months after Joe le Taxi hit number one, life became a nightmare. There were hateful, horrible things said about me. Most of the time it was people my own age, but it was also adults. I've experienced, I guess, what women who slept with Germans in France around 1940 were experiencing in the streets. When people threw stones at them and shaved their heads. I was paranoid and freaked out about people. It was horrible, horrible."
- [what does she dislike about film] "I don't dislike it, but it's way less magical. To me, doing a movie is like a vacation. It's difficult to be an amazing actor but the pressure's less than singing. With acting, your lines are written, your costume's made up, your make-up is done for you and as long as you know your lines your life is really easy."
- "My personal life always comes first. Whenever I take a professional decision it always comes first and he does too. I do remember my life before, I remember being sad and lonely and needing someone. But now my life is so full, that's what happens when you become a parent: superficiality is out of your life."
DS Magazine, November 2000
- "Having a child changes your life in many ways. I think all the mummies will find something for her in these lyrics written for my little daughter. The birth of Lilly Rose is the most beautiful thing that happened in my life, I've waited for that for a very long time and I would never have imagined it could be something so powerful!"
- [about her album 'Bliss'] "That is something totally selfish. In this "family LP", Johnny and I wanted to have our daughter's voice engraved on this record for the rest of our life, to have a souvenir from all these happy moments we shared altogether. It's really a personal pleasure and not something we did to introduce her to the world."
- "A friend you can tell anything, someone who doesn't say Amen to whatever you say or do and someone who does not lie to you. Friendship is also accepting the other in what he really is. Friendship is listening, to be open minded, generous, loving and trustful."
- "No, I'm not that fairy who says "You only need some love and trust to succeed in being happy", I know there are some days you feel like sending everything or everyone to Hell and you simply do it ! That's also life. But trust is something helping you out to find a balance, not calm and in a sort of routine but serene and Zen. It's always a matter of exchange you can't live long with someone too selfish. You can't be jealous with someone who is giving you the opportunity. If there is a liar in the story, understanding is impossible. Even if the other one is someone over generous there will always be a time when he or she wouldn't stand anymore; anyway the more the person is generous, the more the other one is taking advantage on this person, and at last he is not sure to be happy with this situation, he'll be fed up with it. You can't act or decide by your own in a couple. It takes two."
- [did love make her a different person] "I'm always the same me, except that before knowing him I was always sad. Though I had everything to be happy : health, a true passion for my job, success and my family's love. But I missed something."
Construire, 20 March 2001
- "Bliss' is a declaration of love for the man of my life, Johnny. I'm sure of that: we are made for each other. I have often been in love. But I've never had a relation as intense as with Johnny. I want to spend the rest of my life with him."
- [why does she choose to live in France rather than Los Angeles] "I hate to generalize, but architecture here is more beautiful, food is better, and people more charming. The French are sometimes more grumbling than Americans but they're also more realistic and closer to real life."
- [when asked if she doesn't like Americans] "I've come to know very nice Americans. They look shallow sometimes but they are more open-minded and more talkative than us. We French can be really boorish."
- [where do the media trouble her more] "In France, they are more insistent with me. Because here, I am part of the public property. But I don't have the right to complain."
- "Such stories happen only because we are in the public eye. It's the flip side of the coin, the dark side of success. That being said, I'll never get used to it. I always feel hunted down."
- "I like to sing but I think I don't sing well. I feel marvellously comfortable in front of a microphone. But when I listen the recordings, I think: 'Oh my God. It sounds terrible.'"
- "I hate to have such little self-confidence. I sometimes mope because I think I'm bad at everything. But on another side, those complexes are a motor that push me to get better. Too much self-confidence can get you to be blase."
- "There are lots of things that I don't like in my physique. But I accept what God gave me. I can compensate with makeup. But I'll never use plastic surgery. At least, I hope I'll always know to resist the temptation of deleting the marks of age. I think facelifted women are hideous, although Katherine Hepburn's wrinkles are magnificent. It's beautiful when one can see a whole life engraved on a face."
- "I love to shop. In this moment, I am into buying kids clothes. Lily-Rose can't wear all that I buy for her! My second indulgence is to go around to antique dealers. I collect Art Deco and Art Nouveau objects, green-and-red-velveted sofas. And old frames. I also like to mess around making lamps with pearls. I know, it sounds crazy. I've become very stay-at-home. And I've found I have a fondness for cooking."
- [how is she after the birth of her daughter] "I am less selfish. I've become a lot stronger. I finally know why I am on earth. I'm a a lot happier human being. It's thanks to my relationship with Johnny. Before I met him, I had abandoned the hope to find one True Love."
French Elle Magazine, August 2001
- "The difficulties come if you don't respect one another. If you are not each other's best friend. You can work together or let work separate you. The important thing is to keep the relationship alive, to safeguard the love, respect and generosity, even if it is only through a phone conversation or a fax."
- "We will never have secrets from one another. Maybe I am over-protective, but I will not swaddle her in a cocoon. When she turns eighteen, I will not always be there to protect her. That is a period in life where you get some tremendous blows, and one is not always ready to defend oneself."
- [what is so attractive about Johnny Depp] "Everything. Even his faults. Because he has some of those, too, luckily."
- "Tonight I have to perform and then I use make-up, but in private it is great to be able to dry one eyes without worrying about the eye liner and let the skin breath. Before, it seemed like I was forced to accept my body, today, my man loves me as I am. I don't have to make an effort for other people, except for the audience and the camera. But that doesn't mean that I don't care about how I look. I love beautiful clothes, preferably with pearls and embroideries from the 30s."
- [does she have a lot of patience] "More than Johnny. I was impulsive and un-organized before. Now, when we are going anywhere, I have to plan both my own packing and all that Lily-Rose needs. And today I am so well organized that my mother just laughs, because it is so unlike me. At the same time, I know that when my darling is impulsive and unbearable, I must calm him down. But it's not like I handle everything, we take turns. Sometimes I do feel an urge to scream or throw a dish into the wall. Once in awhile one must do so. But in the end, one of us must give in, if only it is not always the same person. Johnny just needs a spark and he explodes. But he can also be very calm. He can control his inner demons. And then he is more calm than I am."
- "I have never seen myself as a rebel. I actually find that a ridiculous thought. If I have been provoked, it has happened without my wanting to. He is the same. When he has hit something or run amok there has always been a reason for it somewhere. I'll not go into details. That is his history and most of it happened before we met."
- "You calm down over the years. You don't rebel any longer, you don't protest, you get more pliable. We must teach Lily-Rose to protest. [laughs] I think she has already learned it by herself."
French Elle Magazine, 16 December 2002
- 'Noce Blanche' changed a lot of things for me. After 'Joe le taxi's' success, there was this incredible hate against me. People were insulting me, some were spiting on me. I lived a real nightmare. I that movie, I played an ex-prostitute who has been hurt by life. I wasn't that little singer with too much make up on, anymore. When the film came out, everything changed, the press, the people in the streets were gentle. Maybe they realised I had a little bit of talent."
- [about her dog] "I was 20, and my only companion was him. On stage, while my 1st tour, every night the audience was shouting its love to me, and I was finishing every concert crying, because of that. My comfort, my friend Nelson."
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