- Most of the Bond girls have been bimbos. I have never been a bimbo.
- I hate that term. They can call other people Bond girls, but I don't like it, for the simple reason that that character would have been a good character in any film, not just a Bond film. I consider Bond girls to be those ladies who took one look at Bond and fell on their backs. Whereas Pussy Galore was quite a character.
- [About the Rank charm school] And please don't confuse me with people who were in the charm school. Everybody's always saying I came from the charm school, which I never did. People in the charm school were picked off the street and hadn't had any training, at ten pounds a week. And I was picked off the West End stage, at a hundred pounds a week, which was a lot of money then. The charm school people used to walk about with books on their heads. Mind you, some very good people came out of the charm school. Diana Dors was one. She was a great mate of mine through a couple of pictures.
- [speaking about sex in modern films (2012)] It's like sex scenes, they were more powerful in the Sixties because they were all about suggestion. Now nothing is left to the imagination, everyone humps everyone else, all over the place. I find that boring, frankly.
- [on Sean Connery in 2012] I disapprove of him strongly now. Because I don't think you should accept a title from a country and then pay absolutely no tax towards it. He wants it both ways. I don't think his principles are very high.
- [on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher following her death in 2013] She was a powerful figure, but she did damn all for empowering women. She didn't surround herself with any women whatsoever or encourage women to come into politics or do anything in particular. She could have been a quite wonderful role model.
- [on Shalako (1968)]: It was almost the worst film I've ever made, from the point of view of pleasure. Edward Dmytryk had just come off the blacklist, so he had a lot to prove and was tense. Eric Sykes was going through a terribly deaf period. Brigitte Bardot they didn't dare leave alone, in case she committed suicide. Stephen Boyd was going through a religious conversion and used to come in each morning saying "Peace", instead of "Good Morning". Jack Hawkins, who played my husband, had recently had an operation for cancer of the larynx and had this hole in his throat covered by a medallion, and we were terrified of getting sand in it. He couldn't speak and therefore mouthed his lines silently. In one scene, we were supposed to have a row in which one tops the other; now, it's very difficult to have a row with someone who's not speaking!
- (On Richard Burton) You didn't really want somebody in your bed quoting Shakespeare. Most of the time, he was drunk. We were staying in these little chalets and he came home one night and got into bed with me. I kicked him out eventually. He wasn't my idea of heaven.
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