Barbara Windsor Quotes

I feel a lot older than I am but at the same time I don't want to play too old on T.V. I still want to be young. I still want to be 20 and enjoy this period of my life where I still have that flexibility.

When I retired, I was at an in-between age. I wasn't a child anymore, I wasn't really a woman yet, and they weren't really writing scripts for that age.

I definitely don't look my age. So I actively look for roles that will help people change their perception of me.

I can't stand that - those women in 'Waiting to Exhale' now. I can't stand them. But that's because I'm 53 and not 33. But what they were experiencing at 33, I identified with it.

Europe to me is young people trying to appear middle-aged and middle-aged people trying to appear young.

And getting older, what's happening is, I play only mothers.

This is what happens when you are on the wrong side of 40. Young adults, who could be your children, are now working with you. I was playing their parents or mentor. I started to think: Oh, I am not part of that group any more.

This idea of the world expecting you to remain an ingenue forever - it's a very short shelf life if you're going to commit to that as your career, and I knew that early.

I was scared to say I was in my 40s because at that point, it sounded really old, and to out myself as a middle-aged human - I felt very awkward about it.

I had a bit of a male menopause. It started at the age of 18 and continued until I was 45.

I am now at an age when they wanted me to play her mother.

It's been helpful to have so many opportunities to look different so people stop pigeonholing you.

My career seems to have worked out OK, especially since I turned 40. I've always had a character part, mind you - I've never played the princess. But if you're used to doing that, it must be soul-destroying to hit 40 and suddenly find there's nothing for you to do.

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

I've introduced myself with comedy, and once you've introduced yourself as something, that's where people keep you. That's where people like to hold you.

Middle Age is that perplexing time of life when we hear two voices calling us, one saying, 'Why not?' and the other, 'Why bother?'

I always did think that when I turned 40, I'd start coming into my own.

I don't want to be the stupid blond. I want to be an actor.

I think midlife crisis is just a point where people's careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.

It's not so much that I'd like to play a raunchy character, but I would like to play someone my own age. I'm always playing down, but I guess it's good because it means I've got a longer life in my acting career.

Turning 50 can be difficult, sometimes dangerous, for women. The danger is in that blip that can come from the fact that you become invisible, and if you're not careful and don't embrace that, it can trip you up and you lose confidence.

I was originally cast to be the brains of the Enterprise. Somehow I became The Chick. There's a little ugly girl inside of me going 'Yay! I'm a sex symbol!'

It's dangerous to get too far from what they identify you with.

It's every woman's tragedy, that, after a certain age, she looks like a female impersonator. Mind you, we've known some lovely female impersonators, in our time.

I'm happy that I'm finally getting some lines in my face. I always looked too young for the kind of roles I wanted. It was constraining. My face didn't fit my innards until I reached 40.