Women Born In The 1930s

"The world is a large place we don’t know how God moves, we don’t know which date he has for anyone; we just have to accept it."

"The voice was the main thing; you must have a clear diction that people can understand. If you have a speech defect, it will be very difficult to say you want to go into broadcasting."

"You move from one grade level to another, if you are patient enough, if you are hardworking enough, you will move and get up there."

"You must have a good disposition, a very pleasant approach to life."

"She is an embodiment of excellence, embodiment of all that is the best in broadcasting. She was passionate about high quality broadcasting. She was passionate about community service. She was passionate about the downtrodden, the underprivileged."

"Chief Julie Coker was not only a beauty while in service, she stood for perfection in production and for her to have risen to become the Head of Presentation on the Nigerian network television when elocution walk with her."

"One must have a forgiving spirit. The world will be a better place if we adhere to these rules."

"People must be contented with what they have. The little you have you can share with people. Be free to share with other people the little that you have or the gift that you have."

"I accused historians of blacking out the fact that women were arrested alongside the famous Kapenguria Six – Jomo Kenyatta, Achieng’ Oneko, Bildad Kaggia, Fred Kubai, Kung’u Karumba and Paul Ngei. I said there were two women besides the six men, that is, Mama Nyoroka and Sarah Sarai, yet no one knows if such people ever existed. Women were not passive observers in the freedom movement, but played an active role alongside the men."

"Obviously, it's great that has happened, and great it was a young audience — terrific [...] That's the nature of my profession. The young, I don't expect them to know about my past, but if, through Game of Thrones, they discover me, that's good."

"That was my first battle with male authority. I discovered after a while in The Avengers that I was earning less than the cameraman. I made a bit of a song and dance about it and demanded more. I was ahead of the game, in that respect, because nobody backed me up. There was no sisterhood. In those days, you were on your own."

"Becoming a sex symbol overnight [in The Avengers] shocked me. I didn’t know how to handle it and I kept all the unopened fan mail in the boot of my car because I didn't know how to respond and thought it was rude to throw it away."

"“Every student needs quality education”"

"“We come from a continent of immense greatness and it is our time as the youths to address and find solutions to the issue of unemployment by going into new and innovative fields.”"

"She said the youth and leaders of today ought to to be selfless and Prioritise the interests of the country, for Kenya to realise much more growth and development."

"“They say give a man a fish, and feed him for one day, show him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. I believe this exemplifies what we at Kenyatta Trust are attempting to achieve, by creating a new generation of young individuals with a progressive mind-set to fill the necessities of this ever altering world,”"

"I had had a 10- year relationship with Thomas Joseph Mboya, popularly known as Tom Mboya or simply ‘TJ’. This was in the 1950s, before the flamboyant politician became Economic Planning and Development Minister in President Jomo Kenyatta’s administration after Kenya attained independence. I blamed the break-up of my relationship with TJ on his cheating on me with a white woman while I was under an 18-month colonial restriction order."

"There is discrimination in Kenya, contrary to the United Nations convention for the elimination of discrimination against women, which Kenya ratified in 1984."

"I selected the date of 17 August because it was the anniversary of her great-grandfather's detention."

"Girls had a very difficult life, especially those who chose to go to school. I recall some of her schoolmates dropping out just because the boys ordered them to do so. In my twilight years, I expressed disappointment that female liberation veterans were never accorded the same recognition as their male counterparts."

"I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything."

"[Reported as being one of two "bachelor girls" (the other being Barbara Shelley) who is "wary of marriage"] I think a career makes you selfish when it's going well — probably too clinging when it isn't."

"There is more to my life than sex, money, fame and a few ­horrific people I have met once or twice. Certainly I've been in love, been loved and had some highly comic adventures. So has your typist and the girl who does your wife's hair and so have most of the sensible swinging girls of ­today I am trying to represent."

"I suppose the thing I'm most sad about [...] is that in my thirties, when I was at my most photogenic and knew what I was doing, I didn't consolidate my career. That annoys me. I'd have liked to play one magical role in my thirties."

"I began to entertain the other kids, but I don't think they always appreciated it — they thought I was a bit of a show off. I got a good training for being an actress though, because while the people at the children's home didn't approve of dancing — they were very strict Methodists and thought dancing involved too much physical contact — they did approve of drama, and they even used to raise money with end of term shows when visitors would come and see how well we were being looked after."

"I was so happy to be working with people I was comfortable with in The Royal Court crowd. It was such a relief after spending five years being hassled or groped by this star or that, to feel like I was appreciated. It was reassuring. As regards kitchen sink, I prefer to call them 'social realism' as I think it's a more accurate term."

"There was one Sister that I think got sacked because of me [...] There was a system in place at the home if you were very lonely you could take your mattress and sleep in Sister's bedroom. I was sleeping on the floor one night when she did something to me and I didn't like it, so much that I wet the bed in anger. As a result, she threw me into the bathroom and under a boiling hot geyser and I was screaming in pain. Another Sister came in and stopped it, wrapped me in a towel and sat me on her knee. Two weeks later, [the first] Sister was gone."

"[On her early modelling career] I hoped my mother would see the photographs and she'd find me and want me [...] That was my dream."

"[For her role in The Entertainer] I turned up to casting in a room crowded with young women, all looking the same except I was a bit younger. So I let the pony tail down, took the hoop out of my petticoat and read the lines in my best RP, as I'd been taught to do. Director Tony Richardson was dismissing me with a "Thank you dear" but he later told me that as I walked away, he'd noticed the scuff marks on my heels. It must have sparked a thought in his head because he called out, "Can you say the lines in a northern accent?" I was furious, and I yelled [in strong Lancastrian tones]: "I’ve spent five years bloody trying not to.""

"I noticed that black girls never had names in movies. They were just "girl" I remember one instruction read "Enter girl, not very black.""

"[On limited opportunities for African Caribbean actresses in the UK] If you want to know how many black women are being employed, go to the BBC canteen."

"I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn't really happen. I did Desdemona [at the National, opposite Olivier] with great discomfort and was terrified all the time. But then everyone was terrified of Larry."

"[On the attempted suicide of her husband, actor Robert Stephens, who was playing the lead in the film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) at the time] And after that it was just hopeless. We had two little boys. He didn't understand. I sure as hell didn't understand. It got worse and then it went on getting worse and worse. In the end it was destroying everybody. And he was having so many affairs. [Stephens saw doctors] I remember when he was diagnosed as hyper-manic asking what it meant and the doctor saying violent moods swings and indiscriminate sexual activity. And I thought "that about covers it really"."

"It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies."

"You see, life is what you make out of it and so is this industry."

"I have been in the movie industry for a very, very long time. I really cannot remember precisely when I ventured into acting."

"“She thought football was like soccer,” Edelstein said to “Philadelphia Daily News” after Diana passed away in 1997. “She asked, ‘What are your colors?’ I said, ‘Green and silver.’ She said, ‘Those are my favorite colors.’“"

"Driving an 800bhp car is something I, like many other racers, have always dreamt of but I didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to do it, so when the team at Renault UK contacted me I jumped at the chance. It was definitely very different to the rally cars I’m used to but was an amazing experience. I could feel myself getting more and more comfortable with the single-seater and being able to speak to Jolyon, driver to driver, also helped when the nerves did kick in."

"It’s not very often you unearth a story like Rosemary's, she's a remarkable woman, a tremendous athlete, and embodies the kind of passion for life we can all learn a lesson or two from. I think this piece of work will resonate with hearts and petrol heads alike."

"Rosemary is a truly inspirational racer and woman who so strongly embodies our guiding principle of passion for life, so it was a privilege to help her achieve her dream by driving a Renault Sport Formula One™ Team car as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations. It was great to see her out on track, pushing herself to get everything she could out of the experience."

"After racing and facing the challenges of competing in a male-dominated sport together for many years I was so happy that my friend Pauline was able to share this latest milestone and give me that extra boost. It just goes to show that anyone can fulfil their dreams at any age if they put their mind to it and always follow their passions"

"Requesting that policewomen should be allowed to marry, get pregnant and have children as and when they wanted was a very important one for all those who came after them."

"It is heart-warming to hear that a policewoman acted as the IGP while others are now commissioners and deputy commissioners, as during our time the highest rank for women was Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)."

"We share in your loss and would support the family to ensure the late Madam Nkansah is given a befitting burial."

"(Having lived for many years outside of Argentina, what is your conception of home?) VALENZUELA: I lived for over three years in France, one in Normandy and then in Paris. Practically a year in Barcelona. And ten glorious years in New York, from where I moved back and forth to Mexico and, at least once a year, with trepidation, home to Buenos Aires. I don't miss anything anymore, neither people nor places. Many writers say that language is their real home. I am all for that notion. During the last military dictatorship it was said that the writers who had left the country would progressively distance themselves from their roots until one day they would no longer be Argentine writers. It was a way of dismissing those voices, the only ones capable of being critical and objective about the regime. I, for one, don't need my roots deep in the ground; I carry them with me-like the aerial roots of our local clavel del aire. Anyhow, you can never really return home. Buenos Aires has changed so much that is no longer my city. It is a good place to clam-in and write, and the mother tongue is crucial. One thing I discovered in coming back is the importance of your own intonations as background noise. I left New York when I started dreaming in English, talking to myself in English, thinking in English. The Argentine language is a home I don't want to lose."

"(How would you compare contemporary literary life in Argentina to literary life back then?) VALENZUELA: Literary life then was passionate. Literature was really alive; it was something to be taken into account, both in the media and the public sphere. Now we run with the times. Individualism is rampant among the writers, and the media pays much more attention to politicians, starlets and comedians-one and the same-than to intellectuals"

"I believe fiction is a search shared with the reader."

"Otherwise the division is clear. You inhabit another realm when you are writing a novel. It's like being in love-being "in novel." At times, the need is unbearable. During those periods, I don't want to write short stories. On the other hand, I might get a spark or an idea for a story; then I need a certain willpower to start pulling the thread, with the exact tension and patience so as to discover what lies behind the glimpse. Cortázar said that when the moment came he had to go to the typewriter and pull the story out of himself as if he were pulling out some kind of creepy creature, una alimaña. It sometimes feels like that."

"Fiction requires a vertical gaze-delving deeper into the non-facts, the unconscious, the realm of the imaginary. These are two very different ways of seeing the world. Fiction, for me at least, is the best way to say things. I can be much more clear-minded if I allow my imagination to take the lead-never loosing the reins, of course, but at full gallop. I also believe that, if you are fortunate, you can access the unconscious through fiction; in my case, elaborate ideas emerge in a very organized manner."

"You cannot make a writer-it is an innate way of seeing the world, and a love of language, and a lifetime commitment."