You never know what life is going to throw at you, really, do you?

My first big disappointment is always, why don't I look like Julie Christie? Then I realise I don't look remotely like Julie Christie, and that's always a great sadness to me. Because I used to think I might have done, at one time. And I'm too fat. And I'm too old. You always see your faults, you see.

Your confidence is destroyed when you find out you can't trust people.

For the first part of my career, I did what I was told, and I wasn't getting anywhere. I'd get in such a state when I was asked to do something, and it didn't feel right, and I'd end up feeling that I wasn't very good.

My father fought in the war, and then he was posted all 'round the world with his job. So I didn't know him very well when I was young.

I don't think I've ever been lonely in my entire life. I love to shut my front door and be on my own.

I tell myself things will be different in a few years' time, but this is the most wonderful, golden time for me. I'm basking in the success of 'Tango', really loving it.

I'd make every weapon on the planet unusable. Every bomb. Every gun.

In my day, the films you got were about mature people, people with some kind of weight.

I now do my own cabaret act, singing and telling stories about my life.

I think that the romantic suspense that you used to get between people like Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant is much sexier than seeing people taking their clothes off and getting into bed, which is voyeurism.

Now that I know about my great-great-grandfather, I feel that John Reid and I would have got on well together.

Get an Alan Bennett script; then everybody will want to do it, no matter how big they are.

I don't do so much acting work now, as there aren't the parts except for 'Tango'. So if I didn't have the cabaret work, I don't know what I would be doing.

I'm past it now - love. I can't imagine it happening again.

I'm sick of it when people start to say it: 'Aren't you amazing?' If they start to say it, I hit them.

I would have liked Sir Laurence Olivier to ask me to go to the Old Vic and let me play all the roles Judi Dench got.

I like waking up in the morning and thinking, 'Mmm, I might go to Paris today.' I don't want to ask anyone if they want to come with me or mind me going. I like being my own agent. I have my grandsons and son. If I didn't have them, it would be different.

I'm not homophobic. I mean, who cares? You know the state of the world, and you're only here for about 70, 80, years, so why do people worry about somebody's sex life? It's bonkers, really.

I did go to public school, but that's only because my parents were abroad. As a matter of fact, I think that's helped my work. I can go from Victoria Wood's 'Dinnerladies' to playing Barbara Cartland, from 'Coronation Street' to playing Celia in Last 'Tango'.

I like my own company.

We are just party people. We always had a drink in the evening with the music on and space to dance. It was that kind of a family.

I have notebooks all over the place. I write little stories for my cabaret.

I'm afraid sometimes I cram too much into my schedule. And I'm not very domesticated. I'm absolutely hopeless in the kitchen.

I'm not really emotionally dependant on anybody except my son, my daughter-in-law, and my grandchildren. But a partner... I haven't felt like that for so many years, I don't really remember what it was like.

Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company - what a wonderful woman.

I'm enormously proud of being the ancestor of a convict. That's mad, isn't it, but I really am.

I never thought of getting married again. I'm quite difficult to live with, I think.

'Downton' took a long time to catch fire in America, but we have been getting good reviews for 'Tango.'

I've accepted stuff even if it's a few lines, because I think it's better to be seen.

What I really want is an Oscar.