Iva Zanicchi

"I really like Renato Zero: he is a great artist, and he confirmed this to me in Venice, if ever there was any need. He knows how to hold the stage, he has that extra something that makes him great, beyond what he sings and what he says. I don't know him very well as a person, but in Venice he was very affectionate and kind to my daughter Michela, and so he won me over completely. He's not pretentious, he's sensitive, elegant, in short, I like him a lot."

"Fini should get lost. He's not part of the PDL. If he wants to leave, let him go."

"(About Mikīs Theodōrakīs) He was the greatest composer of Mediterranean music of the twentieth century: by Mediterranean, I mean the entire tradition of the countries bordering that sea, including our own. His notes were and are the essence of that spirit, of that soul."

"I am not diplomatic. For the sake of humour, I say anything. And then I regret it."

"The market pays. And then you get a lot of spring onions and cherries. A Neapolitan man in Pioltello gave me a fish. He started shouting: ‘Zanicca! Zanicca! Vote for Zanicca’. [During the campaign for the 2004 European elections]"

"You other men are lucky... until you're ninety... I'm over sixty, I'm done."

"Ours is a strange job. If you work, you earn money; if you don't work, you don't."

"I didn't have a very high fee. But I had sponsors. For ten years, I advertised mattresses. In the end, I looked like a mattress."

"She's not a turncoat, but what happened to her is monstrous. Today's Pivetti, all leather and studs, bald and with her boobs out, looks like the daughter of the one in the Chamber with her scarf and suit."

"(About Pippo Baudo) He's someone who works hard and well. A great professional, but as a person he's rubbish."

"I had a moment of weakness at the end of my marriage and cheated on my husband. I still congratulate myself. It was the first time I had fallen in love. But no important lovers. I had many important suitors."

"(About Roberto Benigni) He said defamatory things about me and Berlusconi. [Live from Sanremo with the programme L'Italia allo specchio, in the episode aired on 20 February 2009]."

"I was treated in an indecent, unseemly manner by Mr Benigni. He said some monstrous things. (Live from Sanremo with the programme La vita in diretta, Intervento a La vita in diretta, 20 February 2009()."