- [on hitting middle age] I am devastated at what has happened. I have completely disappeared. I am totally invisible. I never really liked my sexy label but on the other hand, to disappear so totally is quite startling.
- I don't go without make-up, though. I rather like that transformation in the morning from "I don't want to look in the mirror"; then you start pulling yourself together. It's a rather nice present to yourself that you can still do that.
- I had an eye job in my early forties. Someone took a photograph of me in a play, after I'd lost a lot of weight, and I did look like Miss Havisham. I thought, "I have to do something - I'm too young to look like this." So I went and had an eyelift once the play was finished, and the doctor said that it would last only about eight years. I imagined after that it would all cave in with a terrible groaning sound, like scaffolding, but it didn't, and I haven't had anything done since. I look at women who are my age who look absolutely ravishing and I know they have had something done. Well, why not?
- If I meet a woman who is immaculately groomed, I really admire her discipline. I grew up admiring out-of-this-world screen goddesses, such as Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth, but I have to acknowledge that I haven't the patience for getting dressed up very often - at my age you think: "Why bother?". Now that I'm older, I don't go to premieres or first-night parties, not even my own.
- I didn't like my Bond Girl outfits. The designer was a friend of the directors and I thought they were too boring and middle-aged for my character. The right costumes are essential for getting into a part; I've witnessed many costume parades with grumpy or even weeping actors because they've been put into the wrong thing.
- In those days, trousers were appallingly cut for women so I used to go to a gentlemen's tailor to have them made. Nowadays you can look at some quite highly priced clothes and be astonished at how badly they are finished. But then, people don't look for that any more, it's only old bags like me that do. When I need to look smart, I go for Armani because he's just absolutely brilliant at tailoring. I always dress for myself, not men or other women. I'm well aware of them though - you get the sweep of the eye up and down and I think: "You poor thing, are you so competitive that you have to measure yourself against everyone else?". It's so pathetic.
- I think I was quite daring. I was once escorted out of a restaurant because I was wearing a trouser suit. It wasn't considered good breeding for a woman to go around in trousers after 6:00 pm, especially in smart restaurants and bars such as the Connaught Hotel, which served the best cocktails.
- Society was so much more prudish in the 1960s. In one episode of The Avengers (1961), I played a belly dancer and I had to stick a jewel in my navel because the Americans wouldn't tolerate them. In those days, you didn't flash the boobs at all. What you did do to look glamorous was jack the boobs up and probably wear something quite low-cut.
- The leather catsuit I wore in The Avengers (1961) was a total nightmare; it took a good 45 minutes to get unzipped to go to the loo. It was like struggling in and out of a wet-suit. Once I got into the jersey catsuits, they were very easy to wear but you had to watch for baggy knees; there is nothing worse. I got a lot of very odd fan mail while I was in that show, but my mum used to enjoy replying to it. Some of the men who wrote to me must have been a bit startled because she would offer really motherly advice. I would get a letter from a teenage boy, say, who was overexcited and my mother would write back saying: "My daughter is far too old for you and what you really need is a good run around the block.".
- Look at me. I'm a dame and I'm a chancellor.
- The older you get, I have to say, the funnier you find life. That's the only way to go. If you get serious about yourself as you get old, you are pathetic.
- I think women of my age are still attractive. Men of my age aren't. They've got their cojones halfway to their knees. They have the same descent as boobs.
- I don't know how your Guardian readers are going to take this, but I've had a housekeeper for 24 years [as of 2014]. So I'm well looked after. I'm a deeply spoiled woman. I make no apologies about it at all. I think they think: "Oh, poor woman, she's living on her own." Not a bit of it. My bed is turned down every night.
- [on the possibility of remarriage in old age] I'm very good at living with somebody. I think my ex-husband would accede to this because I tend to please. I come from a generation where, when my dad arrived and parked the car, my mother rush upstairs and put some lipstick on, which I think is so charming. I'm wasted living by myself, in a sense. But don't anybody, please, take that as an invitation to step forward.
- I don't want to retire. I never want to retire. What's the point of it?
- I sort of vaguely knew Patrick Macnee, and he looked kindly on me and sort of husbanded me through the first couple of episodes. After that we became equal, and loved each other and sparked off each other. And we'd then improvise, write our own lines. They trusted us. Particularly our scenes when we were finding a dead body-I mean, another dead body. How do you get 'round that one? They allowed us to do it.
- I stepped into Honor Blackman's shoes; Honor was what the first. I played her part, but the irony, the real irony is, that The Avengers (1961) started out as two men; it was Patrick Macnee and another actor, and the actor dropped away at the very last minute and they put Honor in and they didn't change the script, so, she was doing all those things that men do and these gentlemen (who are no longer with us) couldn't believe their luck, because suddenly they had female icons and they were going, 'How did it happen?' We didn't have a choice, but that's really, so I can take no credit; at all, but all I can say is, thank you very much, because it was a wonderful part and Patrick was adorable to work with and I think it came through that we really did love each other, no sex, but we loved each other. I think I got mutual respect, and we did get that.
- [Of Patrick Macnee]: Well, particularly, Patrick was very kind and that mattered that we clicked... we got on. We had the same sense of humor and he was instrumental in my easing myself into that part and very quickly feeding at home in it, cause Pat and I would write our own lines; they were very kind letters, so improvised and stuff, just to keep it fresh.
- [on On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)] They wanted an experienced lady with a certain degree of glamour to help along a totally inexperienced actor. Fine. It was much like being a coach. And it was well-paid. £50,000. Can't complain.
- [on George Lazenby's decision to only do one Bond film] The role made Sean Connery a millionaire. It made Sean Connery...I truly don't know what's happening in George's mind so I can only speak of my reaction. I think it's a pretty foolish move. I think if he can bear to do an apprenticeship, which everybody in this business has to do - has to do - then he should do it quietly and with humility. Everybody has to do it. There are few instant successes in the film business. And the instant successes one usually associates with somebody who is willing to learn anyway.
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