Isabella, 71, says ...

“I am older and I look like a woman my age. Some mornings, when I look at myself in the mirror I think: “What if I have surgery?” But I always exclude it because surgery is like when they sold feet to women in China, a new consequence of misogyny. If I did I might look 56 years old, but when I'm 76 I'll look 66... ​​It's winning a battle to lose the war. Besides, in the long run, beauty is mostly about elegance and intelligence. I think of Maria Callas, Frida Kahlo, Anna Magnani... 

At 20 we all look good in jeans and t-shirt. But then, beauty is a matter of style, personality, charisma... You don’t need to hide the flaws, but transform them to be unique. Now I’m no longer trying to be sexy, but finding the best expression of myself. When you are young you have a lot of pressure: work, money, children... But as you get older you feel more free and secure and you do what you want. Nobody talks about how wonderful it is to get old! ”.
Isabella Rossellini

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photograph (copyright by the respective owner) of Isabella Rossellini via

Because of and inspite of

“When people like me, they like me "in spite of my color." When they dislike me; they point out that it isn't because of my color. Either way, I am locked in to the infernal circle.”
Frantz Fanon

photograph by John H. White via

Distraction

“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”

Toni Morrison

photograph of Toni Morrison by Jill Krementz (1974) via

Quoting Betty Friedan

"Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength."

Betty Friedan

photograph of Betty Friedan via

Quoting Shelley Duvall

"I'm not afraid of ageing."
Shelley Duvall

photograph via

Quoting Paul Auster

“It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don't know half as much as I think I do.”
Paul Auster, Oracle Night

photograph of Paul Auster via

The Numbers Shouldn't Matter

"Of course, everyone would like to stay 35 forever, and in my mind I kind of do. But I can't get caught in that trap of thinking, 'I've got to do this or that.' The way I live, the way I work, the way I feel, I'm going to make every moment count. I may live to be 100 or I may die tomorrow, but whenever that is, I will know I died trying, and I will know I've done everything I could to make the most of everything. As long as I stay healthy, the numbers shouldn't matter. I don't feel my age, I don't work my age, I don't think my age, and hopefully, I don't look my age!"
Dolly Parton

photograph of Dolly Parton (1973) via

Quoting Samuel L. Jackson

“When I grew up in segregation, I knew which white people didn’t want to be bothered with me, and I knew how they felt about me. When I see Trump, I see the same rednecks I saw when I was growing up … [who] tried to keep me in my place.” 
Samuel L. Jackson

The world seems to be in as hard a place as it’s always been. As a child of the ’60s, watching what happened at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and seeing the police beating those demonstrators — and those were young white kids — I learned there’s a certain kind of thing that the powers that be don’t want us doing. One of them is protesting what they think they want us to do. So when George Floyd happened, it was great to see all the different faces of kids out there fighting the injustice and what the power was doing once again to keep you from having an open mind or keep you from creating change that is not the change they want made. That part has not changed. In my opinion, it’s kind of worse. They used to hide it. Now, they don’t hide it anymore!”
Samuel L. Jackson

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Quoting Lauren Hutton

“I don’t believe your looks go. I intend to be one of the best-looking old ladies that anybody’s ever seen and if that happens to me, then that means I had a good life.”
Lauren Hutton, 1974

photograph via

Everyone is our neighbour...

"Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race (sic), creed or colour."

Queen Elisabeth II

"In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945."

Queen Elisabeth II

"I am reminded of a lady of about my age who was asked by an earnest, little granddaughter the other day 'Granny, can you remember the Stone Age?' Whilst that may be going a bit far, the older generation are able to give a sense of context as well as the wisdom of experience which can be invaluable."

Queen Elisabeth II

"Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves–from our recklessness or our greed."

Queen Elisabeth II

photographs (all Magnum) by Eve Arnold (first and second) and Martin Parr (third) via 

"We do not know who we are if we ignore what we will become."

"Let us cease cheating, the meaning of our life is in question in the future that awaits us; we do not know who we are if we ignore what we will become. Let us recognize ourselves in this old man, in this old woman. We must do so if we want to take up our human condition in its totality." 

Simone de Beauvoir

As Sonia Kruks points out, most people seek to flee this "other within us", do not recognise themselves in the old but view them as a "different species". It is "their bad faith flight from their own incipient old age that accounts for much of denigration and mal-treatment they inflict on the old".

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image (Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Luc Goddard) via

Quoting Bob Hoskins

"I've played so many historical characters because most horrible dictators are short, fat, middle-aged men."
Bob Hoskins

"I'm a feminist, yes! Very strongly."
Bob Hoskins

"I'd say I am partial to women."
Bob Hoskins

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image via

Quoting John Lydon

"I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate."

John Lydon

photograph via

Different. Not Less.

"I am different, not less."

Temple Grandin

photograph of Temple Grandin via

Quoting Richard Attenborough

"I very, very, very rarely lose my temper. I do get cross sometimes when encountering something that I feel is improper, that I feel is lacking in justice and equity, and this all sounds very pompous and over the top - but these are the things that really upset me: intolerance, prejudice etc. I suppose in more mundane matters, I'm impatient."

Richard Attenborough

photograph (Young Winston, 1972) via

Mina's Priorities

"I'm not interested in being immortal. I like ageing."
Mina

photograph via

"Sad to be at a stage in your life where you have to play 'old people'?"

“The only alternative to playing old people is playing dead people. I’ll pick elderly people. I have three grandchildren and I live for them. But also, I remember, I once read a script and I sent the script back [to the producer] saying the part was too small. He sent it back to me saying, ‘I did not want you to read the lover. I wanted you to read the father.’ And that’s when my career changed. I suddenly realized I wasn’t going to get the girl anymore. But I was going to get the part, and I really did get some parts.” 
Michael Caine

photograph via

Quoting Paul Robeson

"Here we were born and here we will stay." 

Paul Robeson (1898-1976)

"Well, I am the son of an emancipated slave and the stories of old father are vivid on the tablets of my memory." 

Paul Robeson

"My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you." 

Paul Robeson

"This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen." 

Paul Robeson

"To fight for participation in the forward march of humanity." 

Paul Robeson

"The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people." 

Paul Robeson

"I am being tried for fighting for the right of my people." 

Paul Robeson

"I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed." 

Paul Robeson

"I am here because I am opposing the Neo-Fascist cause, which I see arising here in these committees." 

Paul Robeson

"As an artist, I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this." 

Paul Robeson

"I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism."

Paul Robeson

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photograph via

A Woman's Single Pure Life and a Man's Double Life

“I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to have a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not.”

Sylvia Plath

photograph of Sylvia Plath via

Quoting Judi Dench

"Anything that we can do to improve the lives of elderly people is welcome so far as I am concerned."

Judi Dench

photograph via