I've never felt the need to be defined by a man.
— Cherie Lunghi
I enjoy art, architecture, museums, churches and temples; anything that gives me insight into the history and soul of the place I'm in. I can also be a beach bum - I like to laze in the shade of a palm tree with a good book or float in a warm sea at sundown.
Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, the higher your profile, the more castable you are in TV dramas.
I try to live my life as honestly as I can, and the last thing I want is to pretend to be something I'm not. To pretend to myself I am a sex symbol would somehow be dishonest. I'd feel, in my heart, that I were behaving artificially and that's the last thing I want to do.
I think being raised by a single mother put me on the outside, and I would watch my mother's married friends and think, 'Why does she put him down in public?' or, 'Why is he so rude to her?' It seemed to me that there were very few marriages where the couple were genuinely in a supportive, loving partnership.
I can honestly say I love getting older. Then again, I never put my glasses on before looking in the mirror.
I ski every three years or so. I don't have the ingrained confidence that others do, but I'll happily toddle about a green or blue run.
To keep my back from getting stiff, I have a strict regime every morning of stretching and do yoga once a week and Pilates. 'Strictly Come Dancing' in 2008 was great for my fitness.
People ask me how I manage without a man in the same tone they might ask someone how they're doing with just one lung, but it's not like that at all.
I have done so many love scenes in the past that I have learned how to pull off a sexy smoulder on the dance floor.
I'd see my daddy about once a month, and I missed him. I would have loved to have had more of him. He was tall, attractive and very quiet, very gentle. He had a wife who I don't think ever really liked me much.
I've been a single parent for a long time. It reminds me of being a waitress. As you walk back to the kitchen, requests come at you from all sides. You're doing the job of two - you have to be highly organised.
I've got an overactive, analytical brain. I get frustrated, impatient, angry with myself. I swear at myself a lot.
I'm a romantic and will only marry for love where there's respect and compatibility. I'd like to be with someone if the right person came along. I really like male company. I like the male mind.
I didn't get attached to Botox. It is costly, and you have to remember to keep doing it.
I tried Botox, but I don't want to be hooked on that stuff.
Whitley Bay was my first experience of the seaside. I'd buy my bucket and spade, and beach ball, and all the shops were teeming with toys. I used to spend hours on the shuggy boats.
War is good for absolutely nothing, because no matter how far and wide apart we may live, we're all the same under the skin. We all want to live, laugh and love.
My mum - and my granny and I - would close the curtains, turn on the TV and snuggle up and watch 'Come Dancing.' It was actually my granny who was the biggest fan; she loved the show, and she passed on her passion for it to me. I loved the dancing but also the frocks and the glamour.
I've always loved dancing. As soon as there is good music, I've got to get up and dance. I was passionate about ballet as a little girl.
I just want to say to women, 'Be yourself - it's the inner beauty that counts. You are your own best friend, the key to your own happiness, and as soon as you understand that - and it takes a few heartbreaks - you can be happy.'
The lines on your face are your medals. You've earned them, so why shouldn't they be worn with honour?
I'm pretty good at getting things out of the way, especially paperwork. I hate it sitting about, as it somehow weighs me down.
I'm lucky to have very good genes. My mother was so tiny she was almost bird-like, and my father was tall and lean. Both lived until their early 80s.
With age comes a greater wisdom, an ease and comfort with oneself.
I've always been terrified about not having money. I've been a big saver and a big earner. When I've been out of work, I've always found another job. I never wanted to get into debt, because money was very tight when I was growing up. I never felt deprived, but I couldn't have the things I wanted.
I wear my lines like a soldier wears his medals. They've been earned. They've been fought for - so there's no reason to be ashamed of them. In your 50s, you just care less about that sort of thing. I think it's to do with what's inside you. You can't obsess about the outside.
I come from a strong matriarchal line. I was raised by Gypsy, her sister, Mary, and my maternal grandmother. The result of not having my father live with us meant that, when it came to understanding the opposite sex, it was like working without a map.
I grew up in a very political household. My mum used to shout at the television. At Mrs. Thatcher.
There is so much pressure to be thin, and you constantly compare yourself to others. But confidence is something that comes with age and experience - it has to be earned along the way.
It's a bit of a headache being a perfectionist. You're never satisfied.
I just want a quiet life. I think that's what everybody says when they get older.
I really enjoyed staying at an encampment at the top of a hill in the Samburu Reserve in Kenya. You reach it on a small plane; there is no electricity, no city noises and you sleep and shower under the Milky Way, with moths fluttering around a kerosene lamp, knowing that there are elephants and lions roaming free in the valley.
At the beginning of my acting career, I worked for two seasons at the RSC and spent a lot of time in the Cotswolds exploring Shakespeare's countryside. It's my kind of English landscape, with its tiny villages and one-room thatched pubs.
I want to play women my own age, rather than artificially 'de-age' myself so that I can play women who are younger or much younger than I am. I want to grow into those kind of more mature parts, not try and keep them at bay for as long as I possibly can.
I have had big relationships. Three times in my life I have felt a special connection, but people talk about looking for love as if it's just like walking into a Starbucks and buying a coffee when you feel like it. It's rare, that special connection.
I'd like to break some new ground, maybe in TV presenting, rather than just be an actress.
I'm mad keen on recycling because I'm worried about the next generation and where all this waste we're producing is going. It has to stop. I wash out my plastic containers and recycle envelopes, everything I possibly can.
There isn't anything I don't eat, although I'm not too keen on creepy crawly things. Other than that, I'm quite adventurous. I like all types of red meat, and I'm not a fussy eater at all.
I had my appendix removed in my 20s. I was in the middle of a play with Helen Mirren at the Royal Court Theatre, a fabulous career break. Then two weeks in I began suffering the most horrendous pain and had to pull out. Sadly, by the time I'd recovered, the show's run had ended.
I think it's nice to age gracefully. OK, you lose the youth, a certain stamina and dewy glow, but what you gain on the inside as a human being is wonderful: the wisdom, the acceptance and the peace of mind. It's a fair exchange.
I grew up in the Fifties, and the majority of people in my class had fathers living at home. I was very aware that I was in the minority. I had a foreign name, and my daddy didn't come and pick me up from school. I felt like an outsider, which probably helped me as an actress.
I have that precious commodity - freedom. I can live my life a day at a time, and I am open to whatever the next day brings. I know I sound as if I have been off with some guru in India, but I haven't. I've come to realise the value of being able to decide for oneself.
There's something about 'Strictly Come Dancing.' Everywhere I go, people wish me good luck; cabbies toot their horns. It's lovely. I have a theory: in straitened times, there's nothing like a bit of unapologetic escapism.
Sadly, the timing's never been right. There have been men who would have married me but I didn't feel the same, and vice versa.
I am simply not such a slave to my vanity, and I don't want to be, because as you get older you really have to start accepting the inevitable.
The advantage of age is that you swap youth for wisdom. You're so full of insecurities when you're young. 'Who am I? What do I have to do for people to like me?' You get caught up in things. You get very emotional about things.
