Joan Collins Quotes

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

Certainly there are dozens of over-50 actresses who look great: Sophia Loren, Susan Sarandon, Ursula Andress, Stefanie Powers, Raquel Welch, Barbara Eden, Joanna Lumley, Linda Gray - the list is endless, and these are just the actresses! I have many friends in their 60s, 70s and 80s, not in the limelight, but who all look absolutely stunning.

I think bare legs in winter are idiotic. Unless your naked pins are toned, tanned and veinless, it's best to cover up. There is nothing more elegant in winter than dark tights worn with matching knee-length boots and a belted trench coat.

One of the main secrets to staying young is staying healthy. I've sometimes had to suppress a smile when some young lady, who has obviously not taken care of herself through diet or exercise, says admiringly, 'Ooh, I hope I look as good as you do when I'm your age!' Although it's intended to be complimentary, it's actually a back-hander.

What is so weird is that young people who want to be 'celebrities' do not want to put in the hard work. They don't want to do the training, go to drama school, read Shakespeare, try different accents and study technique. They just want to be famous. It is not just in England; it's the same in America and all over Europe.

The sad truth is that most of my husbands turned out to be convincing liars.

Jennifer Aniston is cute, but I wouldn't call her beautiful. I think that is why Cheryl Cole is so popular, because she is just so pretty and the public are starved of gorgeous people. When I was young, everybody on screen was gorgeous.

Most ankle strap shoes are seriously unattractive, cutting the line of the leg as well as cutting off the circulation! Try dancing in them - your feet will look like a pair of overdone hotdogs afterwards.

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

Of course it's true: the public want to see young people - young people are the people who go to the cinema. It's a sad fact of life, but you've got to accept it and not whine about it.

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.

One of the rules about being an actor or an actress is that you never diss other actors or actresses, particularly when you don't know them.

I'm a woman for all seasons. I mix 'n' match, do designer and high street - keep all my good pieces. I design all my evening and cocktail dresses most of the time as I dislike what is out there.

Well I've written four beauty books as well.

I'm a fiend for costume jewellery and have countless pairs of rhinestone or diamante earrings, which are so flattering when they catch the light. I love the designers Alexis Bittar and Kenneth Jay Lane, and I always go to jewellers Butler & Wilson.

Hair, in fact, is probably the bane of most women's lives.

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 was thinking, who of the English actresses in the last 30 or 40 years have achieved as much as I have?

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.

I think it is shocking that 15- and 16-year-olds leave school unable to add up and with the reading ability of a four-year-old.

I've said no to 'Celebrity Big Brother,' 'Strictly,' and the American one, 'Dancing With The Stars.' I don't feel it's right for me. I've been asked to do reality TV a zillion times. No way. No way. Nobody's going to get into my living room and see me there.

I'm a bit shy, I suppose, and a bit lazy.

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.

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

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

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

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 have a lot of male friends.

Having had five husbands, I guess I should know a thing or two about marriage.

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.

Of course it does on opening night, but I've never had that devastating stage fright that some people get, but apparently, you can develop it.

In fact, the 20th century I think was the most fascinating century and the whole of man civilization because so much happened.

I've three children, three grandchildren, I work, I travel, and I'm very happily married. I'm very satisfied and happy with my life and there really isn't anything I want.

I have a lot of male friends that I go the cinema with and movie and shopping. A lot of men friends I know love shopping.

After a certain age you get the face you deserve.

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

According to my sister Jackie, most men stray. And sex doesn't mean anything to most men. But I wouldn't date a man who slept around. Absolutely not, I've divorced people for that

Yes, I remember the bombings. Yes, I remember, because - yes, I remember being in air raid shelters. Even though I was evacuated because I was very young, I remember being in air raid shelters and the tremendous feeling of compatibility with everybody.

Love may be a dream but marriage is a nightmare.

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.

If I hear the word 'retire,' it makes me want to throw up. And then do what? Sit around all day watching television?

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

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!

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

I've spent years when I've not been in the limelight at all and I'm perfectly happy living my life without being swooped on by paparazzi.

I was so fortunate to work closely with the designer Nolan Miller whilst on 'Dynasty' to create the wardrobe for Alexis Carrington Colby, and we had great fun sourcing outfits.

It's just something that I like, and I also don't buy into the ageism theory.

I never thought I was particularly good looking. But when I see old photographs, I realise that I was. I do wish I had known that at the time because beauty is power. I didn't realise how lucky I was to be young, beautiful and in Hollywood. It didn't hit me. Every day I woke up, went to the film studio and just got on with it.

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.

Making each day a mini lifetime - to achieve something and to enjoy something.

Well, it is quite daunting, but I made my first appearance on the stage when I was nine, because I went to a theatrical school, because I wanted to be an actress since I was eight.

I think you always have to use certain parts of yourself in any role.

Most of the time we've been living in England and now we've bought an apartment in New York which we absolutely love.

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.

I mean, I'm a war baby, and we had rationing, and we didn't have sugar and sweets, which is very good for you in actual fact. Because when we had a piece of fruit, we'd gulp it down. It was just great.

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.

I have girlfriends who've had Botox and been left with lumps in their faces. And the lips, don't even get me started.

So-called designer bags are useless, and most are also ugly, faddish and overpriced. Pared down and sleek is always best.

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 blame my grandmother for encouraging me to become an actress.

I don't use e-mail; I phone and fax. I think people who are hunched over their computer screens all day should get a life.

No, that's what I think God does to you. He gives you some great gig in which you make a whole heap of money, and you're just on top of the world and on every magazine cover, but your personal life is miserable. And for most of that time, I have to say, my personal life was pretty miserable.

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.

When I was at school, I was terrible at algebra and arithmetic, but I was always the best at English and literature. And acting, of course.

Isn't three quarters of life a guilty pleasure?

I was a pin-up girl. I did it for 30 years and, quite frankly, it gets a bit boring.

However much some journalists may criticize me, I know that I look, feel, and behave several decades younger than my actual age, and much of that is because I believe you are what you think you are. This is called positive affirmation, and it's a really strong tool.

My mother use to call me 'Miss Perpetual Motion' because I rarely keep still.

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.

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

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.

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.

I don't believe in dieting.

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

Life is not life unless you make mistakes

The cosmetics industry has much to answer for. It's a multi-million- pound confidence trick based on giving women endless hope, courtesy of overpriced little pots.

Life is a predator: you have to eat it before it eats you.

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.

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

I don't seek to be in the tabloids but I suppose sometimes I go out and I'm wearing something and they take a picture and it's in.

I loathe conflict, and I loathe not getting along well with people, so I always try very hard to be on the best terms with the people I work with.

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.