Top 90 Quotes & Sayings by Carol Drinkwater

Part of the thing about why I wrote memoirs rather than a novel is that if anybody is going to tell my story it is going to be me in my way.

I know this sounds a bit mad, but I always take a tiny green cut-out leprechaun - about the size of a fingernail - with me. My mother gave it to me because we're Irish. She's adamant that it brings good luck.

I am very hard-working, I try not to give up, and I am disciplined about the hours I work.

At Appassionata we produced relatively small amounts of our very own, premier-class, deliciously peppery olive oil. Olive farming wasn't my trade, but it had become a passion.

I travel so much that life has become a matter of honing things down to the barest essentials. Nowadays, I almost never go anywhere with anything more than hand luggage - and a laptop.

I use my American Express card whenever possible because I earn Air France points, which have taken me to America in business class. I like top quality so I will pay well for an item if I think it is finely made, but I'm not extravagant.

The olive tree is a tree full of health. It is a symbol of eternity. Of all things, it has peace attached to it.

After the first Olive Farm book was published, in 2001 I got a three-book deal with Orion for a large sum of money. Obviously it did not come all at once, but it made the difference to living here on a shoestring to being able to turn the whole place around.

My childhood was quite turbulent and there was sometimes great insecurity about money.

I think the sense of performance and theatre was in my blood very early - but my father was more involved in music and light entertainment, whereas I wanted to do serious classical acting. I wanted to be Dame Carol Drinkwater.

Algeria does not court tourism. It doesn't need to. It has vast crude-oil resources, equal to Libya's. Its infrastructure does not accommodate tourists, and there is precious little visitor information - hardly any in English.

At the age of 10 I wrote and starred in a play that I took around to local old people's homes.

I like the freedom of novels. With the memoirs, I always had to keep to the facts. I like that with novels, if I want to go off and write something quite dramatic or outrageous or something completely different, I can do it if I want to.

To say I love the Christmas season at our home in the South of France is an understatement. I get such a kick out of preparing the house for the arrival of family; seeing our scruffy old villa bursting at the seams with loved ones.

My father started out as a musician but he had a salary from a day job working as a health inspector for the government. When he left to set up his own entertainment agency his income became more uncertain.

Paris, the City of Light, never fails to enchant. With its jazz clubs, music in the streets, outdoor restaurants. The clatter of knives and forks at street-side cafes. Chic and trendy students embracing in the streets.

I get so much mail from women who have lost children because one of my books is about that. There was also a period when my marriage was in difficulty, which people connected with.

I wrote my first play when I was nine, it was about Robin Hood, from Maid Marian's point of view. I was a feminist from day one.

I have discovered France's best-kept secret. Reunion is an island of some 970 square miles situated in the Indian Ocean south-west of Mauritius and east of Madagascar.

I was educated at a convent in Kent. It was run by Irish and French nuns. I mostly hated it but they did allow me to follow my passion for drama, writing plays, performing, and directing my works.

I never think of people's literary potential when I meet them, but people do audition.

Reunion has been nicknamed the Rainbow Isle because it is considered one of the most integrated societies on the planet, and you feel that vibe wherever you go. There is joyousness, warmth and a sense of equality.

Olive oil is the cornerstone of Mediterranean cuisine. This tree is the thread from which the tapestry of the Med has been woven.

In my childhood dreams, I pictured Italy as paradise. I longed to be the next Sophia Loren, living in a village with winding cobbled streets where washing hung from windows and everybody gesticulated and shouted amicably. Ah, but life surprises.

I have lived in the South of France - think cobalt skies, lapping waves, rocky bays - for almost 35 years.

It was Captain Cook who christened the Whitsunday Islands while sailing past them in 1770 on what he mistakenly believed was Whitsunday. His calendar was askew, but the name stuck.

When I became involved with Chris Timothy, it became a truly huge national scandal. It was out of all proportion and went on for months.

Personal loss is a trial that we all face. Like every negative challenge we rise to it or we don't. You grow stronger as you work your way through whatever life has thrown at you or you buckle and go under.

You won't find a publisher until you have written the book and you won't find the time till you sit down, stay down, and write it. No one else is going to do it and that is a fact.

I am a passionate swimmer and scuba-diver.

Paris by day, Paris by night, the most visited city in the world, will never disappoint you, but be sure to get off the beaten tracks.

The almond grows very contentedly alongside olives. I discovered that while in Israel - both trees require only sparse watering once established.

The richness and generosity of the human spirit I discovered in those journeys, meeting with olive farmers and people caught up in war was very humbling for me. Also, finding trees that were six or seven thousand years old made me realise what a tiny pea I am in the world.

Our farm is a 15-minute walk to Pablo Picasso's last home. Alongside it stands the lovely Notre-Dame-de-Vie Chapel with its 13th-century bell tower, which was visible to Pablo from his atelier.

The almond, the first fruit to flower round the Mediterranean, heralds the arrival of spring. It is also an early nectar for the honey bees.

Olives changed the direction of my life. My husband Michel and I found a ruined farm with an olive grove near Cannes. I became fascinated by olives and found myself travelling around the Mediterranean for 17 months, researching two books on the subject.

All Creatures Great And Small' is one of the most popular British television series ever made. When it was broadcast in the Seventies and Eighties viewing figures regularly soared above 20million.

Algeria, the second-largest country in Africa, has been dogged by terrorism. But while dangers remain, they are far outweighed by the hospitality of the people.

Until half a century ago, the Maures slopes had been silvery with olive trees, but in 1956 disaster struck. February frosts dropped beneath minus seven and the trees were blighted.

Tizi-Ouzou is the capital of Kabylia and makes an excellent base from which to explore these culturally untapped and very beautiful mountains. Conquerors from time immemorial have driven the Berbers inland from their coastal settlements and these mountains have become one of their strongholds.

Christmas in the Caribbean, after a tiring flight, may sweep you out of the cold but it's not a real Christmas, is it?

Reunion's ace card is its interior, its natural parks. Its volcanic origins have defined an extraordinary landscape, characterised by high peaks, deep canyons, lush ravines and vast plains, which are ideal for trekking, cycling and water rafting.

The French take their festive platters seriously and spend lavishly on them. Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day, is when they tuck into the big family meal known as Le Gros Souper or Le Reveillon. Traditionally, it was served after the return from midnight Mass.

Technically, my husband and I are residents of the Alpes-Maritimes, where we are tucked away on our olive farm overlooking the Bay of Cannes in a corner that is, as yet, rather undiscovered.

I always have a notebook - I have kept diaries since I was eight years old. My preferred choice is a Moleskine because they have a pocket at the back where I can keep airline tickets and my passport.

Although I still think of myself as an actress, most of my time is spent writing novels or memoirs about my adventures and travels.

The widespread use of pesticides in the French countryside, and its worrying effects on nature and the environment, had troubled me for years.

If someone called and the role was good and there was dignity and integrity in the piece, I'd be up for it, of course I would. It's so hard for older women in acting so when you hear of an older woman having a renaissance in their career, I really applaud it.

As I drove westwards along the A8, the purple hills of the Massif des Maures were rising towards a clear bluebell sky. Cradled within the Var between Frejus and Hyeres lies a bewitching hinterland, a low mountain range known in Provencal as Lei Mauro: the Sombre Ones.

Indeed, I still read a fair amount of French literature and I am very attracted to the emotional depth and simplicity of writers such as Marguerite Duras.

My husband is French and, before we bought our olive farm, we spent our early courting days in Paris. So I got to know well the intricacies of the city.

Algerians cannot offer what they do not have themselves. Many homes have running water for just an hour a day. In the cities and towns there are hotels, even resorts, and in the southern Sahara, where the rock art is second to none, organised tours are available.

Organic olive farming was going to be a particularly tricky challenge, but Michel and I needed to take a risk and let the problems iron themselves out as we came up against them. It was time to make a leap of faith, just like we'd done when buying this farm.

Pink was my mother's favourite colour. Since her passing four years ago, I have envisaged an almond grove with thick clusters of pink, in celebration of her life and as a gentle reminder, during the darkest winter days, that kinder seasons lie ahead.

Provence has become a moveable feast. To the south is the glittering Mediterranean; to the north are the Alps, while to the west and east the margins are fuzzy and seem to expand further with each passing year.

Provence off the beaten track offers silence, stillness, sweet scents, eagles, chestnuts, endless avenues shaded by plane trees, fabulous walking, cycle tracks and beaches to die for.

My first job after drama school was with Stanley Kubrick. It was only a few lines in 'A Clockwork Orange', but I was working with a master of cinema.

Property in Provence can cost a fortune if you don't know where to look and a glass of champagne sipped on the pristine whitewashed terrace of one of the seafront hotels in Cannes can set you back the price of a meal in any other establishment.

Despite trying to keep luggage to minimum, I do like to have all my cleansers and my hair and nail things to hand.

I still find it difficult to cope with the solitude of writing. I often crave the feedback of working with a team.