When I got into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a doctor told me to give up the course as I'd be totally deaf within a couple of years. But I refused to give in.

People keep asking me if I'll marry again. It's as if after you've had one car crash you want another.

I genuinely enjoy talking one-to-one. I have no shyness about that.

When I was young I used to smother myself with olive oil mixed with a dash of vinegar to keep the flies away and lay in the sunshine for hours on end. But we knew no better then. Now we know how stupid that was.

Nothing is going to improve my hearing. I've only got to prevent it from getting worse.

I took some classes in sign language when I was in my early teens because I was told that I would be completely deaf very early. But I never really wanted to learn.

But as far as my work is concerned, I see no impediment, and various advantages, to being deaf.