"I was looking at making a shift in my career. I've been so blessed I'd like to be able to give that back. If I could find young artists, young performers I can nurture to have a career I would really like that." -- Diana Ross

Diana Patience Beverly Ross (July 8, 1910 - May 4, 2000), relative of Robert Ross, was an English children's author and occasional and longtime resident of Shaw, near Melksham, in Wiltshire. A graduate of the Central School of Art in London, she also worked on sculpture and graphic arts and illustrated several of her own books under the name of her cat, Gri.

In her early twenties, Ross worked at the Grenfell Mission orphanage in St. Anthony and would later help Wilfred Grenfell to research his history, The Romance of Labrador, as well as, without credit, drawing the book's illustrations.

Beginning with The Little Red Engine Gets a Name (1942), followed by The Story of the Little Red Engine (1945) (ISBN 0-233-00147-6) and seven more volumes, Ross created a series of picture books which followed the adventures of the same character. Jan Lewitt and George Him provided the illustrations for the first volume and Leslie Wood its sequels.

Ross had several of her short works read alone for BBC radio broadcasts for children and wrote several volumes of modern fairy tales for older chldren. Ross also had an un-credited part in the creation of the BBC children's television series Camberwick Green.

Suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and polyneuritis, she lived the last ten years of her life with her daughter and son-in-law in Newcastle upon Tyne.

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"Criticism, even when you try to ignore it, can hurt. I have cried over many articles written about me, but I move on and I don't hold on to that .""I don't judge people by their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, so I find it really hard to identify someone by saying that they're a gay person or a black person or a Jewish person.""I have three girls, and I say the same thing to them. I'm not involved in their careers because I've learned that it's important for them to stand on their own two feet. They'll feel better and prouder of themselves if they do.""I know that my fans want to know who I'm sleeping with, but it's really none of their business.""I learned something from that. If someone asks me something that I really don't want to do, I say no. I have to trust that. And I'm not afraid to talk money.""I majored in fashion design in school, and I have always wanted to design my own line of clothing, jewelry, and stuff like that; so this was just a step for me in that direction.""I think a responsibility comes with notoriety, but I never think of it as power. It's more like something you hold, like grains of sand. If you keep your hand closed, you can have it and possess it, but if you open your fingers in any way, you can lose it just as quickly.""I try to choose the songs that really are basically coming from my heart. I think that through the songs that I select, people know what's going on in my life.""I was brought up in this part of Detroit that they used to call the ghetto.""I'm a parent, and I try to take care of my health and keep my life in order. In the last few years I've really had to decide what's important to me, and it seems to me that my family and my health are top on the list. And those have nothing to do with show business.""I'm not really a songwriter - I'm an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.""If I have someone who believes in me, I can move mountains.""Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.""It's the first time I have returned to my roots - like going back to be a trio. The fans really wanted me to go back on stage and do the Supremes music, so I went about trying to make it happen. We'll go on tour in the summer.""Just because I have my standards they think I'm a bitch.""My family called me a wiggle tail because I was a little skinny, wiry kid full of energy.""My father worked hard, but we were still very poor; and I didn't want anybody arguing about money, so I became the entertainer - the one who wanted everyone to be happy. I didn't want there to be any problems.""My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunites.""So I'm not worried about the emotions I carry with me, because I'm happy that I have them; I think it's good for the work I do. The emotions that are not healthy are the ones you hold inside, like anger.""They tell me that it will be hard to find a man strong enough to love my own strength and independence, and not worry about being Mr. Diana Ross, but I disagree. I know absolutely that that man is somewhere out there.""When we first began, we didn't have any hits.""With the Supremes I made so much money so fast all I wanted to do was buy clothes and pretty things. Now I'm comfortable with money and it's comfortable with me.""Years ago I wanted to buy an apartment in New York City. I was a single female - I had gone through my divorce - I had three children, I was in show business and black. It was, like, impossible.""You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.""You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself.""You see, I've never really studied acting."

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