I took drugs because we all took drugs.

I once asked my father what he wanted me to be. To my horror, he said, ‘sociologist.’

I got my interest in Lotte Lenya and the Brecht-Weill canon from my parents. And I love classical music – I got that from my parents. I love Cole Porter – that I got from...

France has been very good for me. It has given me a very worldly-cool attitude.

I’m alive today, I’m well, I’m working, I’m still creative. What more can I say, really?

I focus on the individual and not seeing this great big monster, ‘the press.’

I’ve done everything I want to do and gone everywhere I want to go.

I shoot my big mouth off; it just pops up! I have to learn to edit myself.

I wish people didn’t just think of me in the ’60s. I’m not any era.

I never like photos of myself in the beginning. I live with them for three months, put them in a drawer, take them out and look again. I hate the way I look, but of...

I haven’t got purity, and I don’t think I ever did. I have always been, even as a child, a very decadent little person.

I am not frightened of much, but I wouldn’t like to get ill.

I do yoga. I do tai chi. I do a lot to keep my body and my spirit together so I can work.

I’ve learnt to accept what has happened to my voice, I suppose, but I do wish it didn’t sound quite so rough.

Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive!

I’m glad to say my father never felt ashamed of me, but my mother probably did.

I thought I wanted to go to drama school or university, and that would have been a completely different life. But what got me was the sound, and hearing it. Hearing everything so loud, I...

I’m a Capricorn, and they flower late.

I do have a strong sense of God. It’s impossible to explain what I mean when I say that, of course.

I’m sick of being self-referential. I don’t want to do any more songs that can be accused of being personal.

My happiness is very fragile.

I live a very nice life. I have a wonderful time. But it’s not lived drawing on a full level. I’m relaxed, cool, and enjoying it.

Of course I have regrets; I’m not stupid.

I’m not sure yet what my higher mission is, but I have a feeling it might be great. Before, I thought my mission was death, but now my mission is life.

I’m having a great life, and I want to go on having one.

I do take care of myself; I get my nails done, and I have a skin doctor, but that’s it. I’m clean and groomed.

I’ve simplified much more in my writing. I say what I’ve got to say, not in metaphor.

Penitentiary songs have been a love of mine for years. They are so wonderful.

The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin’s.

The first opera I went to see was Maria Callas singing ‘Tosca’.

I’ve got to where I’ve always wanted to be. I just feel more myself, and I’ve learned not to care what other people think. It’s happened slowly, very slowly. But I did it.

I come from a very left wing Socialist family, anti-war and anti-empire.

I don’t talk about my private life.

The way I choose to show my feelings is through my songs.

Life has changed. People have changed. They are more forgiving, less inclined to rush to judgment. And I have changed.

Well, I really didn’t enjoy some of the movies I did when I was young.

I know for a fact that Heaven and Hell are here on Earth.

The really explicit phrase is doors of perception.

The equipment you’ve got really dictates what you’re going to do. When I started touring, there were no monitors, so I had to take the sound from the hall, and of course it was on...

I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to be there for my friends. I want to be able to love the person in my life. I want to work. I want to...

I never saw myself as beautiful. I can look back and see it now, but then? Never.

I never trusted anybody at all. I don’t know why it was so hard, I just didn’t.

All I have to do is what’s right for me.

When I found out my mother wanted me to marry a rich man, I instantly didn’t want any rich man.

I think drugs were used by me as a way of suppressing my natural spirit.

If I let myself sink into depression, I won’t be able to get out. And then I’ll be awfully unhappy. I just have to turn my face to the light and walk on. And trust...

Lovers can do what they like to me – my head is cool.

I was anorexic in the ’60s and ’70s, although it wasn’t called anorexia then. I thought people would be nicer to me if I looked very small and delicate, so food wasn’t high on my...

I serve black tea, which I call Froggy tea. And I have green teas and all sorts of nice teas. I’m serving tea all the time.

The Ballad of Lucy JordanThe morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy JordanIn a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban townAs she lay there ‘neath the covers dreaming of a thousand loversTill...