Cilla Black

“I never thought I'd be on T.V. For me as a kid in Liverpool, it was a more realistic option to be a singer.”

“When people ask me do I believe in feminism - well, I didn't even know I was a feminist. I was the top of the bill; I've always been the top of the bill. So I don't know what equality is.”

“It's no fun getting older. I might be wearing beautiful diamond earrings, but they can't take away the pain of losing my hearing.”

“I was so ordinary, critics couldn't understand it, but looking back, that was the reason for my success. What you see is what you get. People thought, 'I could do that.'”

“I'm quite subdued, believe it or not. I switch it on for the camera.”

“I've had a blessed life. I've pulled back from trying to control my destiny and gone back to accepting whatever fate has in store for me. I live for today because I don't know what'll happen tomorrow.”

“Really, I'm trying to retire. It's just nobody will let me!”

“I am falling apart. My hand is falling apart. I can't shake hands. I had arthritis, and I had an operation for it.”

“I tried never to take anything for granted.”

“It was an unknown thing, a lot of people had very bad trips and I like to be in control.”

“I'm apolitical. Where all that Conservative business came along from, I don't know.”

“I like being in charge of the remote control.”

“I would have loved to have cracked America. When I tried, I got homesick. Then, when I was in New York, my nanna died, and I just wanted to come home.”

“I had to do the book because there was an unauthorised biography which didn't tell it like it was.”

“On my gravestone, I want 'Here lies the singer,' not 'Here lies the T.V. presenter'.”

“I'm a 'never say never' girl. Frank Sinatra retired four times. He kept coming back. But there are people in our business who want to die on stage. Literally. I don't want to do that.”

“I can't say I'm surprised I was successful. I was determined - and I got it.”

“Nothing is a career move. Everything I've done this year has so not been a career move.”

“I just thank God when I wake up every day.”

“I knew I could do anything I wanted to do and go anywhere I wanted to go and not have to worry if I could afford it.”