Quotes
“A healthy love life is not and should not be the preserve of those in their 20s and 30s. It's important at all ages.”
“A lot happens at 50, the best thing being that you just don't care anymore. At 40, you still care. At 30, you care way too much - and your twenties are quite frankly a nightmare. Bring on 60, I say: just imagine the joy of having grandchildren.”
“Acting and modelling are good, but motherhood is what it's all about.”
“All of the Rolling Stones' children are my children's best friends.”
“All this size 0! A bit ridiculous. There's something creepy about fashion shows. The models look like they're going to be tortured. They do this strange pony walk; their heels are so high, they can hardly walk. Creepy!”
“As far as vanity and wrinkles and things like that, that's a part of life I don't worry about. I put on creams, you know, but don't go mad, and I don't have any kind of treatments. I just live a healthy lifestyle. And staying happy, not getting negative and angry, I think that helps, looking at the positive of everything.”
“Being a parent has been such a wonderful privilege for me. My kids make me laugh and cry, but there are definitely more laughs. They really do give my life meaning.”
“Day to day, I love eating soup and salad; lots of stews, fish, chicken, meat and veg. I eat everything, and I don't have any fads.”
“Divorce is not the end of the world. It's worse to stay in an unhealthy marriage. That's a worse example for the children.”
“Fashion is fun, but it's not that important, really, is it? It's important to have other intellectual and creative interests.”
“Growing up in Texas, mum had five girls to feed on a very limited budget, so we'd end up eating the same thing until it was gone - some weeks it was carrots.”
“I always polish my shoes and clean the bottom of them before I go out. I also wipe my handbags. I keep them in little bags to stop them getting dusty. You have to keep your accessories looking smart and clean.”
“I always talk with models and they always tell me how awful it was growing up being tall and skinny. Then when you're older, you're really glad. I think it's nice to have been through a terrible time and then all of a sudden be so lucky because then you appreciate it.”
“I always wanted to have a family - that was one of my big wishes. And in school, I'd taken drama, and I'd always wanted to act. I did go to drama school in New York, Los Angeles and London, and I did small parts here and there, but I never really had the time. Modeling was always paying more.”
“I am 58. That is pretty old, for God's sake. I look pretty good for my age, and I am enjoying that.”
“I am very friendly with lots of people in rock'n'roll, because I spent so much time with them over the years through Mick's work.”
“I am wondering when - if - I have to cut my hair. I think it looks terrible if you have really long hair and it's gone gray. So I am experimenting with wearing it up. Up, with pearls. I think that's quite a good look.”
“I don't like to be rushed. I plan my outfits for the week in advance. I find the appropriate outfit for each occasion, try it on, make sure it is in good condition and have it all ready with shoes, handbag and accessories laid out in my dressing room. Fashion is such a huge part of my career, I have to think ahead.”
“I don't mind being older. I'm proud of my age. I've achieved a lot. It's the same thing with Mick and the Stones. They should be revered and respected. Isn't it strange that now we're living longer we have so much less respect for old age? Perhaps it's a less valuable commodity?”
“I don't really want to get married. I've got my career, my friends - my life is very, very full. It's nice to go out to dinner with a man and have fun, but I wouldn't rush into anything because I don't think it's right to bring another man into the house with my four children.”
“I enjoy life, and I think that's important. Life is so fragile and so fleeting, and it's over in a minute, and you've just got to grab it and do everything and not worry about it.”
“I guess I've always been a groupie. My first date was a bull rider called Tommy Lee Bryant. We'd go to the rodeo every Saturday and Sunday. The bull riders were the cool guys.”
“I had always studied French and was obsessed with French films. I hated the way American films always had happy endings. I liked the way French films had dark and unpleasant characters; it was much more realistic.”
“I have a lot of energy, and if I don't keep myself busy, I go crazy. I alphabetise the spice rack, separate the Lego from the Playmobile, colour-code the knicker drawers - it's scary! My house loves it when I'm working so the linen cupboard can get a rest. I just don't sit around.”
“I have absolutely zero interest in politics.”
“I have done a lot of theater.”
“I have gone out with younger men, and they're great fun; they've got enthusiasm. Stamina! But I think older men are much better lovers.”
“I have very old-fashioned tastes.”
“I love doing theater so much - being in front of an audience and seeing how a character grows and develops with every performance.”
“I love good rock'n'roll, blues and jazz, gospel, and a little reggae.”
“I love men's company, but I don't feel I have to be married. Men are a wonderful part of life, like chocolate. But my life goes on whether they're there or not.”
“I love mysticism - it's such fun.”
“I love yoga... I also see an Ayurvedic doctor, which is an ancient Indian thing. I go and see the doctor to balance my system twice a year; it's preventative. They take my pulse, give me some herbs, and tell me what I should eat and what I should avoid. They rub oil on me too, it's so lovely. It's like a detox.”
“I really am glad that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has had the courage to stand up and say that children should not be hit under any circumstances. I am a committed supporter of this campaigning charity for children.”
“I studied drama in high school, and when I was 18, I studied at the Actors Studio in New York. Then I moved to London when I got engaged to Bryan Ferry, and I studied at the National Theatre there.”
“I think if I weren't so beautiful, maybe, I'd have more character.”
“I think it's great to grow up in a small town because you're just dying to break loose.”
“I think poetry is able to say things in such a small, perfect way that are so hard to say. I think it's a perfect medium for expressing difficult ideas and concepts and feelings. It's one of my great loves.”
“I use a lot of natural products, I get facials, and I drink a lot of detox tea.”
“I used to hang out with Salvador Dali a lot. He was such a nice man. I really liked his wife Gala, too. People say that she was tricky, but she was never difficult with me.”
“I was 5' 10 when I was 14, skinny and flat, with huge feet, and I never had a boyfriend.”
“I was my thinnest when doing 35 fashion shows a week in different countries because I didn't have time to eat. I've never bought the idea that models in fashion magazines cause readers to have anorexia and bulimia. And you can't be a model if you've got those conditions anyway, because you'll get acne and hair all over your body.”
“I was quite nerdy at school. I skipped a year and won a scholarship in chemistry.”
“I was successful very quickly. I was on the cover of 'Vogue' before I knew it.”
“I'd always enjoyed acting, but modeling was so time-consuming - and lucrative - that I didn't pursue it.”
“I'm a bit of a groupie.”
“I'm a fan of very, very expensive creams: Creme de la Mer, La Prairie Skin Caviar Luxe. I'm a huge fan. They work.”
“I'm a very bad citizen. I've never even voted.”
“I'm a very lazy, stay-at-home kind of girl.”
“I'm one of five sisters. I'm the younger of twins, and we're the youngest of five girls, and we've always been very close. We were pretty much a gang. I take after my mother a lot in terms of personality and character. She was very positive; always looked on the bright side of things. She had a tough time of it with my dad but did her best.”
“It's better not to wear too much jewellery - just a couple of nice things, nothing too rattly - and stick to kitten heels or flats. Women let themselves down with tall heels. I think they're kind of vulgar. I see women sinking into grass at outdoor parties or tiptoeing over gravel at weddings. It's silly. You need to be practical.”
“It's really important for children to have good morals and good manners, and that they're thoughtful of other people and that they learn the consequences of their actions.”
“It's ridiculous to imagine you can stay young forever and live forever. It's taking away from young people. There's a beauty and respect in age. Magazines and media are disrespectful of age.”
“I've always felt the man is king of the house and should be amused and treated well.”
“I've always gotten along best with artists.”
“I've been extremely lucky in that I've been a very successful model for a long time. So now I'm an actress and a mother. I'm a theatre rat, which I always wanted to be - I've wanted to act since I was 14 - and I never get bored, ever, and I have four beautiful children. I am, in fact, so darn lucky.”
“I've dabbled in several different religions.”
“Laughing a lot is really good for you, embracing your children's future and embracing your grandchildren, and not having regrets and not being bitter and not being angry.”
“Mick Jagger and I just really liked each other a lot. We talked all night. We had the same views on nuclear disarmament.”
“Music, art, theater. I'm just a big fan of beauty.”
“My dad was in the Second World War with General Patton. He won medals for bravery, but he came home quite damaged, so he was a handful. He told us some terrible stories, and I guess you'd say he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“My favorite dancer is Sylvie Guillem.”
“My first airplane trip was to Paris. I had this fantasy that I would become a model, and I did!”
“My hair can get quite dry, so I condition it in olive oil once a week.”
“My long, blonde hair has been my trademark ever since I started modelling in the Seventies, when I was scouted sunbathing in St Tropez.”
“My love of literature goes back to my childhood.”
“My mother and my sisters - five girls - were crazy about glamour and Hollywood movies. I styled myself on Veronica Lake and Marlene Dietrich.”
“My mother taught us the man was the head of the family, but the woman was the neck, and you could turn him any way you like.”
“My mother was a medical records librarian and wonderful with us girls. She sewed a lot of our clothes - really glamorous, beautiful clothes - and I think that's part of why I was so successful when I went off to Paris; she'd made me all these wonderful clothes to take.”
“My mother was asked to be a model when she was younger, but my father had not let her, so she was quite keen on me becoming a model. I just went off without telling my dad. I took off to Paris and never came back, but when I became a success and started making money, he was very proud of me.”
“Of course, it's no fun getting old and getting sick and dying; we all know that's coming, and it's a bore.”
“On my grandmother's chicken farm, they had cows, and they had this big metal container that the cows drank out of, and we used to swim in it. And we used to get into the chicken feed bins and dive through them.”
“People feel like they know you because they've read about you, and people who don't know me seem to have warm feelings about me. I seem to be popular with women. I go into the loo in restaurants, and they all say, 'Oh, I love you.' It's odd, but it's really nice, too.”
“People think I'm girlish and flippant, but I was an honours student. I was voted Girl Most Likely To Succeed at North Mesquite High in Texas. My best subject was science. I won a scholarship.”
“Quantum physics is quite interesting. All these tiny particles are there as much as they're not there. That to me is very, very interesting. And how our thoughts change the outcome of an experiment, I think that's all quite spiritual.”
“So few people read poetry. That's sad, isn't it?”
“Texans have in common with Australians, in that they are quite strong, hardy people.”
“The great thing about baking is that you can bring in an apple pie when you have company and say, 'I baked this for you,' and people love it. Men love it when you bake a pie for them.”
“The idea of getting old is horrific, but I don't want to make it worse by becoming a grotesque caricature. A lot of people have made that mistake of trying so hard to hang on to their looks that they make themselves look really scary.”
“The more flesh you show, the higher up the ladder you go.”
“The problem with cosmetic surgery is that people who have it can only see how they look in the mirror. They don't realise how weird they look from other angles. I particularly hate the injections that puff out the face, which are hideous.”
“The thing I'm most proud of is that I've raised a lot of money for certain charities - breast cancer and the Caldecott Foundation and the NSPCC. But as far as my self-esteem is concerned, doing 'The Graduate' for 11 months was fantastic.”
“The world's my oyster. But it worries me, all this showing off about being happy. Life is so precarious, and I know terrible things can happen. At the moment, everything is happy.”
“Then, in 2000, John Reid, Elton John's former manager, asked me to audition for the stage version of The Graduate he was producing. So I worked on it, got the part, and after three weeks' rehearsal I was on stage!”
“There's a kind of telepathy that goes on with the photographer and model.”
“There's all that brain work involved, remembering all those lines in a script. I find I have to eat a lot of fish, late - but not too late - in the afternoon. Doing theatre, you need to be like an athlete in training.”
“There's nothing like taking Proust to the beach and daydreaming along to it.”
“To me, it's not the end of the world if I end up not being with someone. I love romance. I love sex. I love men's company, but I don't feel I have to be married. Men are a wonderful part of life, like chocolate. But my life goes on whether they're there or not.”
“We all know pain doesn't exist without some coexisting depression.”
“We used to go to Studio 54 - an amazing place.”
“Well, I think mostly we're dressing for men.”
“Well, I was fourteen in Texas. But I looked twenty-five.”
“When I moved to Paris at 16, I held a dinner party in my first apartment and served only red wine, French fries, and mashed potatoes. Unable to cook, I relied on people taking me out.”
“When I started out modelling, people kept warning me that I would only last five years.”
“When I was 16 and arrived in France, I discovered chocolate mousse. I was crazy about the bread, too. Every morning, I'd go to the bakery and get a fresh croissant. It made me feel very sophisticated.”
“When I was 17, I was at La Coupole brasserie, and Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir asked me to join them at their table. They were fascinated that I'd watched their programme on existentialism back home and wanted to understand nothingness and being.”
“When I was young, I was a sucker for smooth men. Bryan Ferry hired me, at 19, to be painted blue and dress up as a mermaid for the cover of his album 'Siren.' It was love at first sight.”
“When it comes to clothing, I've got one really hard and fast rule: never wear beige. That's such an old-lady colour.”
“When it comes to jewellery, less is more as you get older. Just before I go out to a party, I look at myself in the mirror and take off half of the jewellery I'm wearing. Anything that rattles or clanks is just too dowager duchess.”
“'Wild Horses' is my favourite Stones song. It's so beautiful. I don't mind that it was written for Bianca.”
“You can burn a lot of calories mopping the house.”
“You don't want to wear any styles that are too young... I try to still dress glamorously, but not like my daughters.”
“Yves Saint Laurent was my first fashion show. I wore his tuxedo. And Helmut Newton was my first photographer, in 1973. I was really very lucky. I had an amazing career.”