Actors are not made, they are born.

I've had an incredible relationship with my husband, with my family. I know they've had problems of their own, but we have never wavered in our closeness as a family. I've had a hell of a life.

I just stopped playing bitches on wheels and peoples' mothers. I have only a few more years to kick up my heels!

[on working with the choir, the first time] I felt extremely nervous. I felt I was working with a group of people who are so wonderfully integrated among themselves to produce wonderful sound, music, singing

• their voices are so pure, so clear. I've listened so much to them in

the past to be singing down with them, I was very nervous.

I'm never left behind. I'm the bionic woman.

Providing I can put one foot in front of the other, I will continue to act.

It has been erroneously reported that I am a Republican! I am not a Republican. It's all over the Internet and It's bizarre. I'm a huge Obama fan. I've already voted for him by absentee ballot. I am Democrat from the ground up.

[on handling the early success and Oscar nominations while still being in her teens] I was a very serious teenager at that time and I considered the work to be the most important thing and I concentrated on that. I was a bit goody goody. I didn't fool around at all, which is a bit of a shame, I think. I've missed on a lot of fun, but I've made up for it later [laughs].

[Advice to aspiring actors] I really can't honestly give any tips beyond hang on to your dream. Hang on to what you want, what you feel you want to achieve and go for it. We are all the victims of our own talent and our own shortcomings sometimes, and we have to be aware of those things because they will trip us up and stop us from achieving what our aims are.

Work in the theatre just keeps revitalizing me, it keeps giving me the excitement and the fun of something new coming up and that's a great gift.

[2013] I absolutely do not have a retirement age... I'm only 87 - which today is nothing. It's just like 60 a few years back. I believe age should not stop you from keeping on.

[on the desire to perform until the very end] My son said to me "Mom, honestly, the best thing for you would be to keep working and just go out on stage." and I think that's a good thing to aim for.

[on what make her going at the age of 87] I rest, I take a nap, I don't eat stupidly, I take care of the bod and that's very, very important when you get to a certain age. I'm the bionic woman; I've got knees, hips, everything is new and that has made a tremendous difference to me; replacements are high on my list of goodies.

[on the Murder, She Wrote (1984) remake] I think it's a mistake to call it Murder, She Wrote (1984), because Murder, She Wrote (1984) will always be about a Cabot Cove and this wonderful little group of people who told those lovely stories and enjoyed a piece of that place, and also enjoyed Jessica Fletcher, who is a rare and very individual kind of person. So I'm sorry that they have to use the title Murder, She Wrote (1984), even though they have access to it and it's their right.

[on being awarded British Damehood] I'm joining a marvelous group of women I greatly admire like Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. It's a lovely thing to be given that nod of approval by your own country and I really cherish it.

Children in our business suffer from exposure. Mine did because I was Broadway star. And my children's generation was the first to be confused by reality, The Sixties was a bad time to find yourself.

[on Bette Davis] She is an original. There has never been anyone, before or since, who could touch her.

[speaking in 2015 about reprising her Murder, She Wrote (1984) character Jessica Fletcher] I think it would be a downer. In some way, we'd have to show her as a much older woman, and I think it's better to maintain that picture we have in our mind's eye of her as a vigorous person. I'm still pretty vigorous, especially in the garden ... but if I wanted to transform myself back into the woman I looked like then, it would be ridiculous. And I can't do that.

[on Cecil B. DeMille, her Samson and Delilah (1949) director] Well, DeMille was a hard taskmaster but a friendly man, warm man. He'd ponder everything and very carefully, and he would talk to you in very serious tones about everything because he considered everything he was doing to be frightfully important, which it was.

I'm eternally grateful for the Irish side of me. That's where I got my sense of comedy and whimsy. As for the English half , that's my reserved side. But put me onstage, and the Irish comes out. The combination makes a good mix for acting.

[In 1998] I'd like to be remembered as somebody who entertained - who took one out of oneself - for a few minutes, a few hours - transported you into a different venue - gave you relief, gave you entertainment, and gave you joy and laughter, and tears - all those things. I would like to be remembered as somebody who was - capable of doing that.

[In 2022] I was never going to get to play the girl next door. And I was never going to be groomed to be a glamorous movie star. And I sort of realized that. So I had to make peace with myself on that score.

My first role was to play Audrey in Shakespeare's "As You Like It", which is a very comic part. And Touchstone and Audrey have a very funny scene together. And during that scene, I suddenly got this - the feel and the smell of being able to make an effect by the way I played the role, the way I comported myself. All of the physical aspects of acting suddenly came to me. And I got a laugh, you know, the first time I did it. Well, this was a tremendous kind of boost to my self-esteem.

I was a wife and a mother, and I was completely fulfilled. But my husband recognised the signals in me which said "I've been doing enough gardening, I've cooked enough good dinners, I've sat around the house and mooned about what more interior decoration I can get my fingers into." It's a curious thing with actors and actresses, but suddenly the alarm goes off. My husband is a very sensitive person to my moods and he recognised the fact that I had to get on with something. "Mame" came along out of the blue just at this time. Now isn't that a miracle?

Those of us who were 12 or 13 when the war started were absolutely thrown into the mainstream. We had to grow up instantly, and take care of ourselves.

[in 1985, telling [Barbara Walters about her famous character on [Murder, She Wrote (1984) I worked much harder on a character in the theater than I do playing Jessica, because Jessica is very close to home for me, because she is just an easy woman. She is just an easy going woman. I can relate to her.