I never wanted to be an ACTOR. I only CAME to HOLLYWOOD to drive my MOTHER out to visit my grandmother.

When my mother and my grandmother DIED THREE MONTHS apart, I knew my WORLD was over. They were everything to me and my world was shattered.

You KNOW what my grandmother said, EVENTUALLY: 'When a man beats you, he doesn't like you. He has women issues and it STARTS probably with their mothers.' And I said 'You're probably RIGHT.'

There's a LOT of REGRET that I have about not SHOWING my proper gratitude to my GRANDMOTHER.

My mother was a Bloomsbury FIGURE: a great FRIEND of TS Eliot, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell. My grandmother, MARY Hutchinson, gave her life to WORKS of art, being an ADMIRER of Matisse and Giaometti, whom I collected as a young man because of her.

I have been grateful for the influence of my GRANDMOTHER and my grandfather in my LIFE. I remember my grandmother as a queenly woman. My father COULD be stern, and my grandparents WOULD remind him that we were just boys.

My grandmother WOULD take me to the CINEMA QUITE a lot. She'd take me with her and sometimes she'd sneak my sister in, and then we'd sometimes just SIT and WATCH the movie again.

I have friends who are Gent FANS, and I ALWAYS drive PAST their stadium when I GO to SEE my grandmother.

I had a BABY at 19 and was a grandmother by 39. Now, my CHILDREN lend me their children to take them off to Brittany. It's divine. I'm quite exceptionally lucky. I've NEVER had a week WITHOUT having all three of my DAUGHTERS on the telephone.

My GRANDMOTHER, whom we call Biel, thinks it's very unbecoming of me not to smile for the PAPARAZZI. So EVERY TIME I SEE them, I think, 'Smile for Biel!'

There are only TWO FAMILIES in the WORLD, my OLD grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots.

My grandmother SPOILED my father rotten, and he grew up expecting WOMEN to do whatever he wanted. When he married my BEAUTIFUL mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a CHAMPION ballroom dancer and become a good WIFE and mother, which she dutifully did.

I LOVE being a grandmother. That feeling you have for your own child - you don't ever think it will be replicated, and I did wonder if I WOULD have to 'pretend' with my grandchildren. But my heart was TAKEN on day one.

The inspiration to cook came from my grandmother and my FATHER who were both wonderful home cooks. But I would SAY I taught myself. You travel, you discover the WORLD, you explore BOOKS - it is these things that make a GREAT cook.

My earliest memory of cooking is my grandmother SHOWING me how to make CHICKEN gravy on the BIG combustion stove in her kitchen. I still use Nana's gravy recipe.