Anne Reid

I now do my own cabaret act, singing and telling stories about my life. ”

The day that changed my life was 3 July 1986, when I went to see American actress and singer Barbara Cook at London's Donmar Warehouse. ”

I should be in an old people's home now, counting the roses in the wallpaper. It's a good life, isn't it? ”

I'm not homophobic. I mean, who cares? You know the state of the world, and you're only here for about 70, 80, years, so why do people worry about somebody's sex life? It's bonkers, really. ”

I don't ever think of myself as coming from a particular class because my father was working class but made his living as a newspaper foreign correspondent - someone of no fixed abode, as he used to say - who was as comfortable dining with the Mountbattens in India as he was having a pint with the boys. He was very gregarious. ”

I used to lie in bed and imagine I was performing at the Albert Hall, not that I'd ever been there. I took lessons with a German teacher when I was quite young. But it turned out I had a very high soprano voice, which I didn't like at all. ”

I think that the romantic suspense that you used to get between people like Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant is much sexier than seeing people taking their clothes off and getting into bed, which is voyeurism. ”

Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company - what a wonderful woman. ”

I like my own company. ”

You can wear yourself out by saying yes to things you don't want to do, and nobody really minds if you say no. I enjoy my own company. I'm never at a loss for things to do. ”