Toyah Willcox

Image of Toyah Willcox
My favourite city of all has to be Seattle as it seems to encapsulate everything that is great about both Britain and America.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
The NHS is something we should put above everything else.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I want to make money but not if it involves exploitation.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
In my industry who you know is very important.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.'
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
There's an irony about making a film about punk because punk isn't supposed to have feature films made about it.
- Toyah Willcox
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I am creative with both my limitations and my sense that everything is possible.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
Punk is the voice that shouts the loudest from the silence of inertia.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
See, I hold myself through my own muscle strength. That is why I'm built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
If you don't protect the NHS, you're going to have health ghettoes where people can't get treated.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I have always had disrupted, broken sleep.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I don't think my insomnia is fixable: I think it's in my DNA.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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I am disproportionately ambitious.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I have always fought against being gender specific. I just don't like being identified as female: I'm a person.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
The world doesn't reward talent, it mostly rewards those who are connected.
- Toyah Willcox
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I moved to London to work at the National Theatre and spent my first wage packet on Patti Smith, Bowie and Velvets records.
- Toyah Willcox
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Punk helped musical fringes get attention. Stuff like Nirvana could never have happened without it.
- Toyah Willcox
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I think Marilyn Manson has a better take on America than Michael Moore and I don't think he's appreciated for his intellect.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I try to eat small meals throughout the day.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I'm not vegetarian. I eat what I crave, but most of the time I don't crave meat.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
Getting older doesn't worry me, what does is getting unfit.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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I am very wealthy and I could nurture a child very well.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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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.
- Toyah Willcox
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I can't live in a world of dullards. So I think on that level, I'm definitely punk.
- Toyah Willcox
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I had no interest in people telling me to be feminine, to be ladylike, to wear dresses - it just made me rebel completely.
- Toyah Willcox
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I just find social media such a robotic experience, whereas punk was right in your face.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
I was every mother's nightmare - I was a hair model from 14, and I started coming home with red, blue, green hair.
- Toyah Willcox
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I was completely unconventional in everything, which my mother found very difficult. I was a huge tomboy.
- Toyah Willcox
Image of Toyah Willcox
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.
- Toyah Willcox