Top 35 Felicity Kendal Quotes

It was in India that I started my acting career, courtesy of my parents, long before I set foot on stage in England. They headed a company of travelling players performing Shakespeare up and down the land.

A lot of my close friends are nothing to do with show business. But the people I’ve had relationships with, invariably, I’ve worked with. I think that’s probably because I grew up in a family where we all worked together, so it’s something I feel comfortable with.

In a play, the director is God, and I’m a great arguer. Rather boringly so, I think, about trying different things.

Every woman feels she is too old and has missed the boat.

My parents were very volatile but very loving. My father would get jealous if my mother looked at somebody. I used to be insanely jealous. It comes out of insecurity. It can come and go, but you get to the point in life where you don’t have this raging jealousy and protectiveness about your world.

I’m sure people in the business have said: She’s too old for that part. I don’t hear about it because your agent protects you from those negative things.

I have to say I am a ‘Strictly’ fan, which is why I am in it. I’ve always watched it for years. I am not an ‘X Factor’ fan, and I just think it is a different show. One is about learning something new and having a great time, and the other is rather desperate.

As we have more women in power, so the plays and the TV dramas are reflecting what’s happening.

The girl-next-door image is a sort of joke; for years, I couldn’t get any roles other than as somebody dark.

When I was little I always thought I was marked out, special, on the verge of something momentous. I used to tingle with anticipation.

It’s difficult to say what attracts one person to another. It’s always a combination, isn’t it? I’ve always found people interesting because of the way they think, and a sense of humour is irresistible.

So many roles for women demand that you make the audience fall in love with you or sympathise with you.

Success breeds success, and failure leads to a sort of fallow period.

I did try fillers once. Don’t ever have fillers because when your cheekbones are high, it’s chipmunk time.

It’s nice not to have lines when you frown, especially on TV. I don’t know why people make such a fuss about it. No one is interested if a woman has her teeth capped or her hair dyed.

I think in the acting world you either manage that transition to older roles, or you stick with what you’ve always done and then discover nobody can bear you doing it as an older person.

I don’t think I’ve ever not had a dark side. But one of the wonderful reasons why you go into this business is that half your life you live in a fantasy, which is somebody else’s life. It’s actually a great release because you’re not having to deal with the itty-bitty bits of life.

I am used to looking good. In a way, if I thought I looked like the back end of a bus, I probably wouldn’t have done ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and gone out there in public.

I’m lucky in that I don’t like sweet things at all. My father loved cakes to such a degree that he kept forcing them down my throat when I was little, and it put me off for life. He had terrible cholesterol, poor thing.

I don’t think, until you’ve actually lost somebody you really love, that you can go through that door that allows you to be grown-up.

From the early days of the Raj, Shakespeare had been woven into the fabric of India’s education, and my father understood that in a culture rich with storytelling and fantastical tales, Shakespeare’s characters and storylines resonated in a powerful way.

There is the most wonderful thing called Polaris: it’s a very high frequency laser treatment that lifts and tightens the skin.

I don’t take money seriously, so I can’t keep any.

I really do believe there are things passed down. Behaviour, not just DNA. Psychological make-up. You can see it in dogs. If you want to breed a calm dog, don’t get two fighters.

I love gentle, gorgeous classical music such as Mozart.

When I was much younger, I sometimes felt rejected by feminists because of an image that I sold because it paid the bills. Any fool could tell my hair is dyed.

I haven’t done fillers or Botox for ages. There comes a point where you have to match bits of you with the other bits; otherwise, you get a terribly random situation.

We take ourselves so seriously moment by moment, but India shows you a sense of eternity. You’re one little ant on a hill. You’re part of life, but you’re not the whole thing.

After making my stage debut aged nine as Macduff’s small son in ‘Macbeth,’ I had played a number of parts, from ‘Twelfth Night’s Viola to ‘The Merchant Of Venice’s Portia’.

I love a mask. It’s why I’ve got a thing about good writing. When you’re acting, you’re going into someone else’s work. You’re behind his words; it’s not you.

The problem men seem to have, and women, too, is that they have this very structured idea that we should find a partner and settle down and be, you know, faithful. And yet clearly this is really, really hard for anybody to do!

I’m not very much of a foodie; I like small amounts of delicious things, but I’ve never overeaten – I’d much rather have a glass of wine.

The gym is where I get my chill-out time. I try to go six days a week, but when I’m working, that goes down to about three.

I can be very difficult if people are not professional, or lazy – or the opposite, which is take themselves too seriously.

My father was my trainer, my teacher. He was closer to my sister in the sense that she adored him and he adored her. He was more like my pal. Because of the 13-year gap, I think by the time I came along, it wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t spoilt or cherished, I was just put to work.