My mother was harsh and constantly told me I had jug ears and heaven knows what else. But she was devoted and a hard worker.

We're all works of art in progress.

I was friends with Salvador Dalí until the day he died. Lucky me. I can't say why. I didn't live to be noticed, I lived to enjoy the excitement of doing right that day, and I knew I was doing it right when they would have me back. That was the thrill for me. I yearned to be validated because my mother was stern and I never did much right, that's how I perceived it.

I'm a working woman of 80 trying to work out what the image I can project is. How I can do it with, you know, dignity.

I don't live for stuff and things, and if I had to live in a cardboard box, I would put curtains on it.

Fashion is more about taste than money - you have to understand your body and tailor clothes to your needs; it's all about the fit. I do the alterations myself - I'm quite a seamstress - it's the influence of my Hungarian mother.

I have had more magazine covers in the last 25 years than I have had in my whole elongated career. [...] Today I am in a territory that business considers unmarketable: age and white hair. Slowly, however, I started to own that territory little by little because I stood up for age.