Raquel Welch

My father was a perfectionist. We had to hop to everything and have marvelous table manners. I could only wear navy blue and gray and white. He wanted me to be interested in tennis and horses just like a little princess, but I couldn’t stand such things.

Latinos are here to stay. As citizen Raquel, I’m proud to be Latina.

Contrary to popular myth, I didn’t just hatch out of an eagle’s nest, circa One Million Years B.C., clad in a doe-skin bikini. In fact, I was more surprised than anyone to find myself on location in such an exotic setting, high atop a volcanic mountain in the Canary Islands! With the release of that famous movie poster, in one fell swoop, everything in my life changed and everything about the real me was swept away. All else would be eclipsed by this bigger-than-life sex symbol.

I couldn`t stand that my husband was being unfaithful. I am Raquel Welch – understand?

I was not a classic mother. But my kids were never palmed off to boarding school. So, I didn’t bake cookies. You can buy cookies, but you can’t buy love.

Being a sex symbol was rather like being a convict.

[on her nude picture scandal] I’m much better now. But truthfully I don’t like talking about it. It was something that was meant to be private, and even though it isn’t anymore, I’d still like to keep it as private as I can. It was very traumatic, and I am extremely upset it happened. I hope all my fans can learn from my mistake and make smart decisions. But I wouldn’t have been able to get through it if it wasn’t for my family, friends, and fans, who supported me all along the way.

[on Darren Aronofsky] I guess the first impression was that I’d been a big admirer of his work, and then I met someone who you’d never have put with that work. There was something very refreshing about that. I thought I was going to meet someone who was very intense and weird.

When I was 17, my producer Rodney Jerkins was working with Michael Jackson at the time. He knew how much I wanted to meet Michael Jackson, so he says, ‘Would you like to come and meet him?’ I’m like, ‘Are you serious? Of course I want to meet Michael Jackson! Where do I meet you? Where do we come?’

Everyone has these two visions when they hold their child for the first time. The first is your child as an adult saying ‘I want to thank the Nobel Committee for this award.’ The other is ‘You want fries with that?’

How many husbands have I had? You mean apart from my own?

When humor works, it works because it’s clarifying what people already feel. It has to come from someplace real.

I’m married, you know. I love my husband and I have a child.

I sing and dance as well, and I would like to do the whole Hilary Duff thing.

I have to turn down roles I really want to do because I can’t travel. But that’s okay, because you make peace with things in your mind.

I love being sexy; I’m never gonna stop being an exhibitionist

My vocal style I haven’t tried to copy from anyone. It just developed until it became the girlish whine it is today.

I knew I had to make a sacrifice to do what I’ve always wanted to do.

The Troubadour was the only place where you could go and showcase for record companies. If you were lucky you might get to sing three or four songs that night.

Being a Southern person and a blonde, it’s not a good combination. Immediately, when people meet you, they think of you as not being smart.

Sometimes people expect that I’m going to be tough. It’s not a bad situation. People treat you better. People are on time.