Quotes from Marie Helvin

I'm interested only in buying land in my native Hawaii so that one day I can live there and have the space to rescue animals.

The average British woman is a size 12 to 14, but in modelling, a size 12 is considered huge, which is ridiculous.

Sixties models knew nothing about skin care.

I've been lucky: my Japanese genes - from my mother's side - and a lifelong moisturising routine have helped keep me looking good.

I wasn't interested in having children of my own. I know what would have happened - I'd have been left at home to look after the kids, and my career would have been over while my husband travelled the world.

I'm slim for professional reasons, and I work at it. I really want to continue working. There aren't that many models who are still doing it at 60.

A secret control slip is a wonderful invention. It sculpts and lifts the bum and smooths the hips.

Smiling makes you and others feel better, and it makes you look younger.

I sometimes overeat or drink too much, but I don't eat chocolate, and I gave up smoking when I was 39.

For modern fashion designers, bones are beautiful. I don't know why, but so many people are obsessed with the skeletal look.

For me, my 50s was the decade when my tolerance for heels faded. I'm in good shape and, at 8 st. 3 lb., I'm still the same weight I was in my 30s, but as you get older, the weight of your body shifts somehow.

I always wear the same thing: a tight white shirt - I have about 50 - and tight black trousers.

Most English people are horrified that I use soap, but I like it - it works for my skin. I try different soaps all the time, but I use very mild ones.

I've never met a size zero person. Is Paris Hilton a size zero? I've met her. She looked very thin, but she looked very healthy. She had beautiful skin.

There are lots of things I won't eat but would like to, such as croissants or ice cream - if I started, I'd scoff the whole tub.

I think I'm living in the wrong century. I would have made a great courtesan. Not a mistress - I could never be kept - but a courtesan with my own rules.

Monogamy is not something that's important to me. I don't think it defines love.

I think a mother needs to be with mothers. I don't know what they talk about.

I've slipped enough times over the years to know the peril of a too-smooth sole, so every time I buy a new pair, I take a pair of scissors or a piece of sandpaper to the bottoms to roughen them up. In my catwalk days, I even used to spit on the soles of shoes before I ventured down the runway.

I'm spoilt. I like my own space. I don't even own a microwave, and men don't like that. They want to be looked after.

My marriage to David Bailey ended one morning in 1983, while he was away on a photo-shoot.

I definitely think men prefer women more undone and natural than butch and masculine. They prefer a fresher, sexier, more feminine look.

I was addicted to 'The Monkees' TV programme - not so much because of the music but because of the commercials in between. The programme was sponsored by Yardley, and in the commercial breaks, there would be these English girls on roller skates, wearing hot pants, and I just thought, 'God! How neat!'

I like naughty boys. I was married to David Bailey, who was one of the naughtiest. I like real men, and I like masculinity.