Raquel Welch

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

My body is the shape I live in and it shapes the way I live.

I couldn’t stand that my husband was being unfaithful. I am Raquel Welch – understand?

Part of being a sex symbol is very flattering and it does help you get success in the business – but only to a point. You’re stuck with that moniker forever, and it does cloud people’s imagination. They just can’t see you being able to do anything else.

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.

Americans have always had sex symbols. It’a time-honored tradition and I’m flattered to have been one. But it’s hard to have a long, fruitful career once you’ve been stereotyped that way. That’s why I’m proud to say I’ve endured.

I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged.

I’ve never done a romantic comedy, because it seems they can’t just tell a love story. It’s always something like a radio station does a poll and decides these two people will get along, and if they do they get a million dollars. You don’t need all of that to get into a love story.

We don’t want to be influenced, just informed.

If you pretend to be a role, one day that role is going to break. You’re going to want to be yourself, and people are going to be really disappointed finding out you’re not who you’ve been living your life to be. Just keep it real and be yourself – that’s what people gravitate toward.

We slept together and, believe me, I know the best and worst of David Geffen.

I was advised by an American agent when I was about 19 to change my surname.

I have three other siblings, so it’s all very equal – even when I get a little cocky, which I usually do. My brother keeps me in a headlock. He says that I’m not a celebrity in this house.

I feel like I represent normalcy in some way.

Being on tour is like being in limbo. It’s like going from nowhere to nowhere.

I think I’d make a pretty good girlfriend.

I had lots of breaks.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.

Well, I think you and I have always felt the same way – that we’re Jewish but we can get away with just being exotic. We’re kind of Jews in disguise.

I’ve always been very positive and very resilient.

You don’t need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?’