Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Toyah Willcox

I have always had disrupted, broken sleep.

My early family life was incredibly happy but I was very, very protected and very much living in a bubble. I was born with my legs bent inwards and clawed feet.

I'm not vegetarian. I eat what I crave, but most of the time I don't crave meat.

I have a confession. I don't enjoy animation. I have no idea why because I absolutely adore doing voiceovers. I think part of me feels that animation has put an actor out of work.

I want to make money but not if it involves exploitation.

I don't think my insomnia is fixable: I think it's in my DNA.

I'm really muscular because my mother had to teach me how to straighten my own spine. It wasn't good for my relationship with her because she was dictatorial about it, but in the end I was able to disguise what I had.

See, I hold myself through my own muscle strength. That is why I'm built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

My 30s were a nightmare because I was so uncomfortable. If I could have unzipped myself and stepped out of my body, I would have done.

Getting older doesn't worry me, what does is getting unfit.

I take books on learning to bed - music theory, colour theory - and usually my brain thinks, 'Um, I think I'd rather turn off,' than learn something.

Look and image were very important - there was already incredible pressure to look feminine and sexy but I wanted to look individual and strong. I didn't have any role models except Little Nell from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

I moved to London to work at the National Theatre and spent my first wage packet on Patti Smith, Bowie and Velvets records.

I was every mother's nightmare - I was a hair model from 14, and I started coming home with red, blue, green hair.

I am very wealthy and I could nurture a child very well.

Because of my career I have a huge wardrobe of fantastic costumes and they take up almost an entire house. Many of my stage outfits are worth a lot of money. To save cash I buy my more practical outfits from Primark.

Punk helped musical fringes get attention. Stuff like Nirvana could never have happened without it.

I try to eat small meals throughout the day.

I'm 5ft 1in and despise being small. People think I'm cute and cuddly, and I'm not.

I was at stage school in Birmingham Rep when I was called down to London for an audition in the National Theatre. Maximilian Schell, the film actor, was casting Tales from the Vienna Woods. He was looking at me for a small, but significant, role.

The NHS is something we should put above everything else.

I remember my mother doing housework until four in the morning and then a couple of hours later taking me to school.

Some people believe tarot cards are a form of black magic or senseless new age mysticism but for me they are a practical way of talking directly to the universe.

I think Marilyn Manson has a better take on America than Michael Moore and I don't think he's appreciated for his intellect.

My parents were incredibly strict. My father went through a stage where he'd line us up every Friday and cane our hands if we'd been naughty. And this was mainly to pull my brother into line. My brother is five years older and my sister's eight years older. He would use a little bamboo cane, which my brother saw most of.

You should never undermine friendship and loyalty.

If you don't protect the NHS, you're going to have health ghettoes where people can't get treated.

I've always played all the old songs. I'd go and see Peter Gabriel or Madonna and be surprised if they didn't play all the hits. People don't want to come and hear the B-sides.

Remember all those you work with. You never know when you will meet again.

When I was young I just regarded not sleeping as a fantastic way to pack more into my days. I always reasoned that life's so short, it seemed crazy to waste it sleeping.

Far too many of my peers were taken in by the jet-setting rock star lifestyle and didn't realise the money might not last forever - but I have always had an eye on the future and invest in a syndicate to share risk.

When I left home at 17, I became successful astronomically fast. But I think my parents were so frightened of me failing that they focused on that more than my success.

My own teenage style was modelled on Barbara Hulanicki's Biba look, which was based around smart 1930s chic. Roxy Music crystallised that look and made it high fashion. You felt that they were living the dream.

I am creative with both my limitations and my sense that everything is possible.

My relationship with my father was absolutely wonderful. He was the love of my life and pivotal in my life. He was a good, kind man with very strong Buddhist and spiritual beliefs. He could do no wrong and he was my best friend until he died in 2009.

In 2010 I had to learn to walk again when I had my legs made the same length, after living with one leg two inches longer than the other until the age of 51.

I cannot emphasise enough how important exercise is. I have to do at least a three-mile fast walk a day, usually in the afternoon. Movement is incredibly important in helping my body use up my energy.

I am disproportionately ambitious.

Until I was seven, I was very close to my mother because I was so ill and she had to teach me how to walk and talk. But then she had another child, a little girl called Fleur, who died. When she came home from hospital there was a bit of a distance between us. It was never talked about again.

I have always fought against being gender specific. I just don't like being identified as female: I'm a person.

I was very naughty, even as a baby.

At one stage I was using crutches on stage and couldn't walk more than 20 yards but a hip replacement in 2010 sorted that out.

I was completely unconventional in everything, which my mother found very difficult. I was a huge tomboy.

I have experienced ageism and sexism. In my 20s, I was told by a camera lighting man I needed plastic surgery. In my 30s I was constantly told I needed to lose weight.

Between 2007 and 2016, I had a large white rabbit called WillyFred. I was happiest pressing my ear to his fur and hearing his heart beat.

I always fly British Airways. I find them to be the most dependable and I need to be on time when I'm travelling for gigs.

Punk is the voice that shouts the loudest from the silence of inertia.

I've studied nutrition since I was 23 and I began to find that a lot of my eating habits were to do with boredom and frustrations rather than hunger. When I was thirsty I would eat rather than drink.

I can't live in a world of dullards. So I think on that level, I'm definitely punk.

In my industry who you know is very important.

I had no interest in people telling me to be feminine, to be ladylike, to wear dresses - it just made me rebel completely.

The world doesn't reward talent, it mostly rewards those who are connected.

The late 80s was quite a difficult time for me as an artist because I'd almost become a parody of myself. All people wanted was pink hair and for me to sing 'I Want to Be Free.' There's nothing wrong with either of those but people need to see you as a person for you to be an artist.

There's an irony about making a film about punk because punk isn't supposed to have feature films made about it.

I just find social media such a robotic experience, whereas punk was right in your face.

My father, Beric, ran a joinery business and owned two factories.

Melissa Caplan made my costumes from the 70s to the mid-80s. I was very influenced by futurism and reading a lot of Marge Piercy.

I'm just not interested in the norm. The only example I can give you is I can't go to a hairdresser and talk about holidays. I just don't live in that world. It's not me.

Snob value has great appeal. I have a couple of properties on the French Riviera that have doubled in value - I may buy more as the region continues to be developed.

My mother is not a naturally happy person and is very complex. She won't allow any of us to touch her. Not even my father hugs her. And, as a family, we never kiss each other. Yet we do have a close relationship.