Shirley Bassey Quotations

I'm always being asked if I watch 'The X Factor,' and I do from time to time. I know it makes for great TV and that Simon Cowell has a real gift.

I think men are afraid to be with a successful woman, because we are terribly strong, we know what we want and we are not fragile enough.

I was a wild kid. I was left to climb trees. And you know those railways logs, they piled them up, six feet apart, and I'd jump from one to the other. Without a safety net! I was an incredible tomboy.

No wedding bells for me anymore. I've been happily married to my profession for years.

It's hard for a man to live with a successful woman - they seem to resent you so much. Very few men are generous enough to accept success in their women.

I'm a virgin and I brought up all my children to be the same.

I hate it when people come up to me when I'm eating.

When I started singing, I couldn't be shut up.

I've always been the breadwinner and men don't like that. They turn on you. They bite the hand that feeds them. Eventually, too, they become very jealous of the love one has with an audience.

I decided to retire from show business at the age of 17, because I didn't like it a bit.

I learned by standing in the wings and watching established acts on stage.

I'm too busy putting my energies into my performance to be a diva.

You want success, and then when you do get it, you don't want it because of the attention.

When you live in a safe place like Monte Carlo, you can walk home at any time of the night and you don't have to worry. I don't feel at risk there. If I drive myself, I can leave the car doors unlocked.

I'd like to run away from you, but if you didn't come and find me, I would die...

Who would have thought a little girl from Tiger Bay would one day become a Dame?

I love him because he is Welsh and stylish...and because he gave me these shoes.

You don't get older, you get better.

I wanted to be a model; I wanted to be a nurse; I wanted to be so many things, almost anything but being part of show business.

In truth, it requires not only a large intellect, but a large heart, to judge with becoming charity of the peculiar temptations of riches.

I'm not getting old. I'm getting better.

How oddly do life and death jostle each other in this strange world of ours! How nearly allied are smiles and tears!

I'd like to run away From you, But if you didn't come And find me ... I would die.

Diamonds never leave you... men do!