Joan Collins

I do all my own make-up, it takes me 10 minutes.

My mother was a domestic goddess and Mother Earth figure. She was sweet and placid - just what the perfect wife was supposed to be and I was determined not to be.

The easiest way to convince my kids that they don't really need something is to get it for them.

Doing 20 minutes of stretching, light weights and floor exercises three times a week takes the same amount of time as a long coffee break - and eating a tuna fish salad, sardines on toast or scrambled eggs is surely preferable to a Big Mac or KFC.

My grandmother spoiled my father rotten, and he grew up expecting women to do whatever he wanted. When he married my beautiful mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a champion ballroom dancer and become a good wife and mother, which she dutifully did.

I really feel now like a native New Yorker. And I'm very happy here.

It's no one's fault to be born ugly, but, honestly, must it be worn as a symbol of pride?

I have never been the mousy, stand-two-paces-behind, obedient 'little woman' type.

I don't look my age, I don't feel my age and I don't act my age. To me age is just a number.

Every woman should wear make-up. It takes years off. I'm wearing lots of false eyelashes today, and to me, lipstick is the best cosmetic that exists.

I say, 'Use it or lose it.' I have my own fitness regime, which is centred around stretching, free-weights and fast walking. I also have a trainer half of the year, as I spend my summers in the south of France where I swim a lot.

If you eat junk, you look like junk. People say, 'It's not my fault, it's my glands.' It's not; it's greed!

Well I've written four beauty books as well.

You can't help getting older, but you can help yourself from becoming old and infirm, in mind as well as body.

I used to go over to Gene Kelly's house and play volleyball, and Paul Newman and Marlon Brando were always there. You kind of took it for granted because I was 20, 21, 22, and they were a bit older - well, Gene certainly was. But it was just part of daily living. They were in the same profession, and you didn't think that much about it.

I like to remember phone numbers because it keeps your brain active. If you don't use it, you lose it.

My parents instilled in me that life was going to be very difficult and that I'd have to work for everything.

Gone are the days when a gentleman lightly took your hand in his and brushed his lips across it, or tipped his hat to acknowledge you as he chivalrously stepped aside to let you pass.

I don't buy into you're on the slag heap when you're 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or whatever.

The body is like a car: the older you become the more care you have to take care of it - and you don't leave a Ferrari out in the sun.

I've always maintained that there is a very fine line between a daring, sexy older woman and mutton dressed as lamb.

My father is Jewish, and I look exactly like him... My mother is British, but she's of French extraction.

Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you somebody who has never achieved much.

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.

Botox, I think, is poison, I would never put it into my face, and I'm needle-phobic. I spend a lot of time keeping my face out of the sun and taking care of my skin and wearing make-up.

I'm older than my sister so I started writing first. I started writing at school. I was always top of my class in composition, essays, English Lit and all of that.

I'm extremely happy in my life. I consider myself to be very blessed.

I think, Larry, one of the things is I'm a very active person.

I think health is another exceedingly important thing.

I think dieting is bad for you.

I received an OBE from the Queen, which probably doesn't mean anything in America but is quite nice in England - the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

I mean, even my dressing room at the studio has candles and cushions and cashmere rugs and things.

I have the absolute utmost respect for soap opera actors now. They work harder than any actor I know in any other medium. And they don't get very much approbation for it.

I have a lot of male friends.

I do it because I love acting, I love working, and whether it's radio, television, films, theater, I don't care as long as I can get out there and do it.

I consider you as old as you look and feel. And in that case I feel - I feel I'm about 39, like Jack Benny.

But I have had to give up certain things in my life. One is shopping. Two is lunch with the girls. Three is cocktail parties, and four is studying my lines.

Basically, though, I believe in eating well, not eating too much but eating a variety of foods.

And we have not found any generational gap at all. If he wants to go a football game, he goes. If I want to go to a fashion show, I go. We don't have to do everything together. But we like doing most things together.

And then I wrote my first autobiography when I - well, it was 23 years ago. And since then I've written about one book every two years.

And I used to write novels and little stories and compositions and I - but I put them away because I started acting when I was 17. So there wasn't much time.

And I think of that again as I've written in several of my beauty books, a lot of health comes from the proper eating habits, which are something that - you know, I come from a generation that wasn't - didn't have a lot of food.

And I kissed a lot of frogs as well, but no, I kissed a lot of frogs and now I've found my prince.

Loneliness is the universal problem of rich people.

The secret of having a personal life is not answering too many questions about it.

If I need to cheer myself up, I will put on some fabulous '40s musical on video. But I'm very lucky; I seldom get depressed. Without question, I'm a 'glass half full' person. In fact, it's three-quarters full!

I am a fan of marriage and a fan of being committed to the right person.

I think it has something to do with being British. We don't take ourselves as seriously as some other countries do. I think a lot of people take themselves far too seriously; I find that a very tedious attitude.

We live in a quick-fix society where we need instant gratification for everything. Too fat? Get lipo-sucked. Stringy hair? Glue on extensions. Wrinkles and lines? Head to the beauty shop for a pot of the latest miracle skin stuff. It's all a beautiful £1 billion con foisted upon insecure women by canny cosmetic conglomerates.

The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer.