Deborah Meaden

“I think Cate Blanchett always gets it right. She seems very natural and wears interesting but not ridiculous clothes - she seems to push the boundaries just enough.”

“I love the full-on Hollywood glamour of the 1930s and '40s.”

“I need quite a lot going on, so a perfect holiday for me is one in a cooler climate with wonderful scenery, animals or great architecture.”

“People who buy your product or use your service don't care how tall or short you are, or what gender you are, or your age. It is irrelevant. That is not the basis on which your product is judged.”

“I hate getting things wrong and I hate failing.”

“I'm very direct, I don't believe in wasting time, in wasting words.”

“If people have got an amazing opportunity such as on 'Dragons' Den' and they mess it up by being lazy with their presentation it does make me a bit cross.”

“I'm not a woman in the 'Den,' I'm a Dragon, we're all there to invest, it has nothing to do with gender.”

“Provided someone can persuade me, I will invest in anything.”

“When I sold Weststar Holidays, the idea was to take stock and stop and then decide in life - we were going to travel around the world or whatever we were going to do. After about two weeks my husband said to me, 'Oh for goodness sake Deborah, get yourself a business because this is driving me bonkers.'”

“I won't get involved in businesses that I think cut across any kind of animal welfare issues.”

“I am terrible. When I buy stuff, I want it straight away. If it says two to three weeks delivery - no way. I will find somewhere that will deliver it that afternoon.”

“You can't beat a bar of chocolate between cheap white bread - there is nothing like it.”

“People can call me what they like - fat, ugly, sour - but tell me I'm not fair, tell me I'm not ethical, those are the things that bother me.”

“We have a very good history of manufacturing in this country but I worry that these skills are being lost. We walk around saying, 'We haven't got any manufacturing any more' but Made In Britain really means something, particularly in other parts of the world. We need to support British manufacturing.”

“A lot of people on holiday get very intolerant of things that go wrong, but getting wound up about the plane being late won't make it come any sooner.”

“It is what you can do with your money that matters because money has no value in itself.”

“I'm not looking for hobbies, I'm looking for investments.”

“I don't like shopping and I'm lucky enough to have a stylist to do it for me.”

“I think the thing about business is that it's not completely separate to life. You're selling to people so it's all about life skills - and common sense.”