“I have never written a book about my life, despite being offered purses of gold. I made 'Boxes' because I wanted to make a sincere depiction of a daughter who has lost her father, or the jealousy one can feel towards a daughter who has become more beautiful than you and whose stepfather starts to take her shopping.”
“I have to be careful not to get a paunch - I'm so skinny that if I put any weight anywhere, it'd be there, and I don't like a bulge. I wouldn't mind if it went on my bosom, but it doesn't.”
“Nothing has ever touched on what fun childhood was. Summer holidays were bliss. We made home movies, with real stories in them. My father had such charm and charisma, and made everything so funny.”
“When my father died, my mother came back from being Mrs. Birkin to being Judy Campbell. She was a stunning actress. She came out of her shell. She was herself again: this very independent, funny, intellectual lady - and was able to perform again, which was her life before meeting my father squashed it out.”
“Without my specs on, I think I look really great; then I put them on, and I scream. But at 62, I still think less is better. I use Clarins foundation, but I don't put it everywhere - I hate that covered look - so just on the sides of my nose where the veins have gone bang.”
“I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries.”
“Robert Louis Stevenson... I'm focusing on the late short stories that I was ignorant of. I always thought he was a boys' author, but he's not at all.”
“A Birkin bag is a very good rain hat; just put everything else in a plastic bag.”
“I think it's always good to read local authors or relevant books. In Egypt, I studied hieroglyphics and read everything about the mummies.”
“I use Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, £12, on my lips, and my arms if they're sunburned. I'm past caring that sunbathing is dangerous.”