Actresses From England

"The whole thing -[actor Stewart Granger's pursuit of Jean Simmons]- began as a joke but very quickly developed into a romance. [-] One day my agent called and told me the master, Rank, would like me to have dinner with him in his private suite at the Dorchester Hotel. [-] "Now, it's about Jean Simmons," he started in his flat Yorkshire accent. "I like to believe we're all a big family and I regard Jean as my daughter. (Well, you're a pretty damn mean father I thought, knowing the ridiculous salary he was paying to Britain's top female star.) "You're a married man with two children and what I hear is going on is wrong." "It's a disgrace" added John Davis who had been eyeing me balefully [-] I told them I was no longer married and that I had been divorced for six months [and] beat a hasty retreat.""

"in Divorce American style, there was the discomfort of seeing one of the beautiful wasted actresses of the screen, Jean Simmons. Her suggestions of sensibility - what she embodies - were too fine for the world of that movie. Her presence made the movie she was trapped in seem uglier."

"No Cricklewood girl would ever admit to being from there."

"I'm convinced that whatever state you're in during your pregnancy has a huge influence on the baby's personality - so I hope we haven't produced a little serial killer!"

"He had zero experience but he was really good. The irony is, given the fact that the character can't play very well, is that he's actually a brilliant footballer."

"I had never had any experience of autism before and I would come home and look at my son, Billy, who is now two, and be absolutely paranoid, particularly because he loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and lots of autys love Thomas. But he is not very good at pointing, and autistic children absolutely love middow"

"It was a challenge to be able to create a character without being able to use one's normal set of expressions. All the rubber and makeup attached to your face left you with only a modest range of facial movements."

"I drink booze, I smoke, and I'm hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I'm not physically repressed!"

"I think it's quite an extreme statement - it might be my ultimate attempt to put the corset to bed. But I think I've still got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me, because if I'm not going to be restricted by corsets and covered in lace, then I still wind up wearing an ape-mask over my face. I do wonder how I get myself in these situations!"

"When you're up for an Oscar, you just get offered everything. It's fantastic, but a lot of it you're completely inappropriate for."

"On the day Billy was born, it was like walking through a mirror and everything was Technicolor. My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family it went into sudden widescreen."

"There is no normality in life. Having two houses means that we can get out of each other's hair - which, let's face it, we've both got a lot of."

"I've aged, but I don't think I've grown up."

"Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room. … With the number of people I ignore, I'm lucky I work at all in this town."

"No matter how many modern parts I do, people still refer to me as Mrs. Costume Drama."

"Without my work I would be a neurotic mess."

"[A] cigar-smoking Barbara Cartland,"

"The Vicomtesse alias Moira Lister - even though she is on the wrong side of 60, is looking like an exquisite, flawless Gainsborough cameo."

"I do feel one learns more from one's failures than from one's successes,"

"Get up in the morning and you like your tea milky, You fumble for your glasses coz without 'em you cant see, It's funny how I come round your house and I'm 20 and I still have to wear all the presents you sent me. I walk into your kitchen everything's got a label, you done your Christmas shopping and we're only in April. And you wont leave the house unless your wearing your thermals, you're covered all in cat hair and you're stinking like Strepsils, Your heading down the Bowls Club, have another orange squash. Balls are rollin rollin rollin. You can't walk right coz things aren't what they were, your ankles are swollen swollen swollen."

"And if you have a minute why don't we go Talk about it somewhere only we know? 'Cause this could be the end of everything, So why don't we go Somewhere only we know?"

"We are the youth, we can make coolness for our future, it's up to us. Go green and hate hate."

"I’ve actually broken up with boyfriends for inspiration."

"I'm not trying to say, That I'm smelling of roses, But when will we tire, Of putting shit up our noses."

"I don't know what's right and what's real anymore And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore And when do you think it will all become clear? 'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear"

"I was so lost back then, But with a little help from my friends I found a light in the tunnel at the end. Now you're calling me up on the phone, So you can have a little whine and a moan. And it's only because you're feeling alone."

"Riding through the city on my bike all day Cause the filth took away my license It doesn't get me down and I feel OK Cause the sights that I'm seeing are pricelessEverything seems to look as it should But I wonder what goes on behind doors A fella looking dapper, but he's sitting with a slapper Then I see it's a pimp and his crack whore."

"But he will have his memories, Lance - long after we've forgotten him."

"It must be hard just to be someone's girlfriend."

"I went brunette for a film called Fascination and I loved it."

"I trust him implicitly but that doesn't stop women coming on to him. It infuriates me when women approach him [Ioan] and kiss him full on the mouth right in front of me. They obviously don't think of me as any competition now that I'm a brunette. I think I might have to go blonde again!"

"And I'm amazed at how many guys hit on you when you're brunette. I've had a few occasions where I've found a stray hand on my knee, which never happened when I was an icy blonde. Blokes obviously get drunk and think: 'I might as well try it on a brunette - she'll probably be grateful.'"

"I fought the director for a week to stay blonde, but, eventually, I had to give in. It's amazing how differently people react to you if you're not a blonde. Shortly after I'd dyed it, I walked past a building site and got no reaction whatsoever, and then I tried to get a cab and not one stopped. Getting a cab in London is difficult at the best of times, but being blonde certainly helps."

"The British male has no interest in women. You could get all your clothes off and lie on the sofa and go "Come and get me baby" and they go, "Wanna cuppa tea?""

"Good Lord. I’d be lying if I said I’d never Googled myself, but it honestly never occurred to me to add ‘naked’ to my search criteria. Sure enough, there have been five nude ‘episodes’. And I know this is self-destructive but somehow I find myself on a ‘nudescenes’ forum where linus22 is arguing that I have odd-shaped nipples. Do I? Oh God! That thought never occurred to me! One more for the self-esteem list."

"I'd rather have Prada shoes than eat."

"I love going out and it is a bit sad when the photographers stop asking you for your picture."

"In the past, I always used to be looking for answers. Today, I know there are only questions. So I just live."

"It really is strange the way I work for success but when I get there cannot appreciate it. I enjoy the road to success and the struggle — even when it gets hard. But when I achieve my goal, I feel suddenly and totally stressed. Only in retrospect can I begin to enjoy the moment and admit just how great it was."

"When I sing, I close my eyes. If I see a feather, everything is fine. Without this image in my mind, the sound is not 'truthful' enough and I must begin again. I have to. I first had this feeling, this instinct with Phantom of the Opera and since then have always listened to it."

"Sometimes they're grey/green, sometimes they're grey, and some people think they are blue. So, I can't tell you!"

"The opera world was shocked! But the image is very classical. It's taken from Botticelli's portrait of Venus, who's standing in a seashell with her hair covering her body. It's very sensual. It represents the vulnerable side of me. Although I'm not wearing any clothes, it comes across very well."

"You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside things get in the way."

"I don't know who my audience is. People have said there is an integrity about me, and I think there is. I don't try to follow a trend. I have my own little path, and although I delve into things, I stay with what I am. I'm quite natural with it. Maybe people feel comfortable with that and they trust it, so they buy it. They'll come and see me in concert. I think I always do a good job in that area."

"(on her marriage to Andrew Lloyd Webber) It was such a creative time. Everything was happening very fast. He was writing, I was singing. He was inspired, and I was inspired. I didn't really have time to think about it. I didn't really have time to read things about it, either. I got a sense of things, which made me quite nervous at times. But, no, we were running all the time then, doing things. It was fun, but also a lot of pressure."

"I'm a very talented person, I know that. I'm a very gifted person. I have a lot of imagination. I work hard. I feel I have the attributes within myself to have achieved what I have done. There has been no luck, no miracles. The only miracle has been this voice."

"I am delighted to be presenting again. It was always a question of finding the right show to do and Without Prejudice? certainly fits the sock. I think it will cause much chattering."

"Your good friends naturally bring out the best and sometimes the worst sides of you, and you go from there. I'm not a rusher. I'm horribly suspicious at first of people. It's being everyone's friend on the telly - when I meet someone they expect me to instantly be that best mate for them and occasionally you get up with a shit in your pocket and you don't want to talk to anyone. I don't mind a gab but occasionally I really am rude. And occasionally I really enjoy it."

"I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that if you're doing the right thing, you are handed back pieces of yourself. It's like something goes right for you and this will keep you going for six weeks, and then your next test is going to be designed for you."

"I don't understand Ethel. I don't, I don't really. She's one of my very best friends, Just about the best, nearly. She's an awfully nice girl, Ethel is, Dainty and refined, I mean she'd never do or say Anything unkind. But get her inside a stadium And she seems to go out of her mind."