"Don't sleep with your partner."
So there we have it - a top tip for enduring creative, artistic and sporting achievement, from someone with the success to prove it.
These are words of wisdom from none other than Christopher Dean, one half of arguably Britain's most celebrated sporting couple, when asked for their secret. Jayne Torvill cheerfully adds: "Don’t be married."
This formula obviously works for them. Nearly thirty years after they struck gold and captured the nation's hearts with their spine-tingling performance of Ravel's Bolero at the Sarajevo Olympics, they are still going strong. Sitting in a London hotel room, they do not appear to have changed in any way since that heady time, but how do they feel now about creating such a special part of the nation's collective history?
"We were in such a bubble at the time, just focusing on training," remembers Torvill. "Those days didn't have all the magazines we see now. The realization came after the Olympics, turning professional and meeting people all over the world. They recognise you, and tell you where they were when they were watching. The viewing figures didn’t mean anything to us at the time - it's only now we think 'wow'."
"We had taken ourselves away to Germany and closed the doors going into the Olympics," adds Dean, "It's weird knowing that I remember certain events that have a very public moment, and then realizing that we have one of those ourselves."
Can they bear to watch or even listen to Bolero these days?
"It keeps appearing," laughs Torvill. "It's the basis of the Dancing on Ice show, I have a feeling it's going to stay with us for a long time."
Ice dancing has been in both their lives from a very young age, even before their alchemical partnership was created. "It found us," is how Dean puts it.
He was simply given a pair of skates for Christmas one year, while Torvill remembers being taken on a school outing to the local rink by a teacher - "It could have been to the movies or something but it was the local rink."
Three decades later, and they're still ploughing their way tirelessly round the rink, in a unique combination of technical skill and creative artistry. Do they ever get sick of it?
"No, I think we're lucky we’re still doing it," says Torvill. "We're doing something we really enjoy and we get paid for it as well."
"It's not a job, it's a passion," adds her partner. "You constantly want to be creative and not repeat yourself. There's the artistic side and the technical side, running hand in hand. So there's a lot to be getting on with all the time."
Dancing On Ice has brought them into contact with all sorts of different people, even "Vanilla Ice rapping, which is an unusual bit of showbusiness for us" explains Dean.
It has also brought out different skills for them, in lending others, often beginners, the benefit of their skill.
"The fascination for us is what we can draw out of them, it's like kids at school. Some of them have never performed, and are just so embarrassed by it, but if you can get them beyond that, it's intensely satisfying. On the night, we're like parents watching their kids at the school play."
How has this very down-to-earth pair kept going for so long without giving into either professional boredom or becoming unbearable divas?
Torvill, the self-professed "sensible one" reveals that there isn't enough time for them to get silly. "We've seen a lot of people get up there and come sliding back because they didn't put the time in. They do outrageous things just to get in the press, because they haven't got any talent. But because we've achieved something, we don't have to prove ourselves, we can just enjoy the performance without having to court the media.
"You read an interview with somebody who claims 'I had to work really hard for this,' and you think…" she finishes the sentence with a quizzical eyebrow.
Dean is endearingly shy about explaining the wonder of continuing to skate. "I'm not belittling something like singing," he starts bashfully, "but to actually get to the ice, be creative, keep your body in shape…. what you see is the tip of the iceberg. It's taken so much to get there, the demands feel quite great, we don't need anything else.
"There are lots of 15-minute wonders around. But you have to find a way to sustain it. We've always been aware of our bodies and have respect for them. Surviving injuries, getting through them, that's key…"
And not sleeping with your partner?
Christopher Dean chuckles. "Absolutely."
Dancing on Ice The Live Tour 2011 is released on DVD today. A seventh series of the show begins in January 2012 and, for a walk down memory lane, here are Torvill and Dean in Bolero action below: