I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time such as kindness or cleverness.

I hate the idea that you shouldn't wear something just because you're a certain age.

You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say 'You're a sellout because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edged sword for me: There's a whole group of people who will not come to the restaurants because they assume I'm not in them anymore all I do is TV.

I am happy being able to play roles with people my age because once you do something really mature there is no turning back.

With the song 'This Christmas' I wanted to do something that was kind of different. I mean Donny Hathaway is an amazing artist. So I wanted to bring my flavor to the song so when people over the age of 45 or 50 hear it they'll be like 'OK he did his thing with that record.' It's like I can appeal to everybody and not just a younger demographic.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think if anything the press kind of because of my gender and my age tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic I guess.

High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.

Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.

To be told that one can be dependent on one's parents until age 26 should strike a young person who wants to grow up as demeaning not as something to celebrate.

Every time I see something terrible it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way.

The funniest racism is the racism between minorities. It's something you don't see dramatized but almost every minority I know who's my age they have these funny stories about their parents stereotyping other minorities.

I never - you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

Confidence is something you're born with. I know I had loads of it even at the age of 15.

You know what makes me feel old? When I see girls who are 20-something or the new crop of actresses and think Aren't we kind of the same age?

My husband gave me a necklace. It's fake. I requested fake. Maybe I'm paranoid but in this day and age I don't want something around my neck that's worth more than my head.

I smoke ten to fifteen cigars a day. At my age I have to hold on to something.

There must be a day or two in a man's life when he is the precise age for something important.

My dad encouraged us to fail. Growing up he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn't have something he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome failure is not trying. Don't be afraid to fail.

And in my own life in my own small way I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us - no matter what our age or background or walk of life - each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

No matter what age you are or what your circumstances might be you are special and you still have something unique to offer. Your life because of who you are has meaning.

Age is something that doesn't matter unless you are a cheese.

No one can avoid aging but aging productively is something else.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body but can never be so in mind.