Born on August 6th

"I think that's what really a substantial work is, it's forever. It's the truth now and it was the truth then, and it will be the truth tomorrow."

"It's a spirit that was given me and the relationships and meeting all these great people, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong; through Max I met a lot of people too. My first album was with Benny Carter."

"I don't have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes."

"There are men and women still on the streets, and that's all they are saying Can you spare a quarter? I come from a crowd of people who were current on the outlook on life, who were social and knew where they were and had some input into how things seemed to be."

"But I've been there and done that. I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody, and if somebody wants me to come, if they can afford what I ask, it's not as much as Madonna makes; not that I want what Madonna makes, but I was saying."

"I was looking for the people who were making the music inside the cabinet. I would look in there and see if I could find somebody who was making all this wonderful music."

"I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage. Yeah, I do."

"I remember hearing the song when I was 12 or 14 in - it must have been in Chicago, 'cause we didn't have a radio on the farm, and it was during the second World War. I had three brothers in that war who went overseas."

"I feel so fortunate and lucky I don't have to be a waitress or a bartender or a personal trainer."

"It's so fun to play a villain. I get to tap into a side of myself I thought I never had."

"In the field of mindfulness & peace, be present in this breath, for it is the only moment where life is actually happening."

"Peace is not the silence of the storm, but the calm center you maintain within yourself. As a creative innovator, this is the foundational truth I have observed."

"Let go of the weight of yesterday, and receive the clear canvas of this present day."

"All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move."

"Love is the only gold."

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'"

"Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love."

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three alone lead life to sovereign power."

"My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure."

"'Miss Rumphius' has been, perhaps, the closest to my heart. There are, of course, many dissimilarities between me and Alice Rumphius, but, as I worked, she gradually seemed to become my alter ego. Perhaps she had been that right from the start."

"My favorite days were when I had a cold and could stay home from school and draw all day long."

"She was an enthusiastic painter of oils and watercolors. She was also very generous. I could mess with her paints and brushes all I wanted. On one condition: that I kept my brushes clean. The only art lesson my mother gave me was how to wash my brushes."

"I am aware that I look good for my age. It's my genes. My dad looked incredibly young, so did my mother. And a younger husband helps. Scott is only 45. If he hadn't come along, I don't know what I'd have done."

"I've been incredibly lucky. I've worked in two iconic shows, 'Carry On' and 'EastEnders.' If it all ended tomorrow - and it could - I'd just be terribly grateful. I've been fortunate enough to do what I love and get paid for it."

"I found myself in the doldrums in the early Nineties. I was too old to play the dolly bird any longer and I looked too young to play a woman of my real age. No one ever saw me as the aunt, mother or grandmother."

"I have had the most wonderful time on 'EastEnders' and I will miss you all. The show has changed my life and I want you all to continue the good work, because I'll be at home watching you."

"I don't have any regrets about not having kids. I've just never had those maternal feelings. I am a nurturer by nature, but I nurture adults: my friends, the people I work with. I don't want to nurture children."

"I am not like my image; I take my work so seriously. Everyone thinks I just bounce in, but I study and everything has to be just right."

"I check all my props, everything. Acting is something I love. I have done it since I was 13 but it had completely taken over my life absolutely."

"Jessie Wallace was the first time I erupted. She was late, she was young. She's not like that any more. I lost my temper. It was silly and I burst into tears and ran up to the producer. I said I had been terrible and amateur."