I think birth and motherhood are not things that you're trained to do. You might have a good example in your own mum, but nobody teaches you how to be a really great mum.
I'm the lucky one who got asked to do 'The Sound of Music' and all the other lovely things that I did.
I had toured around England endlessly throughout my teens, but when I came to the U.S. to perform on Broadway, that was a huge step.
The arts need funding.
You can't bring the arts too soon to kids.
There's nothing like the joy of the arts, and promoting the arts early in children is going to give them such a start in life in a way.
I've made my pact with the Lord for the next lifetime. I would love to be a first-class musician. A super one.
I love that President and Mrs. Obama are embracing the arts. I am so delighted.
I love my garden. I love my privacy. I'm very fierce about it. I try not to let too many people into my home. That's my private place.
Marriage is the hardest work you're ever going to do.
Singing has been a cherished gift, and my inability to sing has been a devastating blow.
I come from a long line of below-stairs maids and gardeners. Good ol' peasant stock. My mother and her sister made a quantum leap out of that life. Then I made another quantum leap.
More than anything, the arts are the best teaching tool.
I do not knock 'Poppins' or 'The Sound of Music.' They gave me pleasure, and I know they've given a lot of people enormous pleasure.
Programs that bring the arts to young kids are always the first to be cut. It's mind-boggling to me.
Actually, I had a lot of good people with me - my mother's sister did a lot of taking care of me, and I suppose I got more attention than my stepbrothers because at least I got to travel with my parents.
I didn't know other children from divorced families, and I was a bit of a lost soul for a while. Then suddenly, I was performing. And it gave me an identity.
I've always seen the cup as half-full.
I know I probably have a lot of rage in me that I don't show. But I'm not about to wallow in it or reveal it.
There are elements of me in the roles I've played in the past. But people forget that Mary Poppins was just a role, too.
I'm resilient, and I'm professional.
I justified working so hard by knowing that I was helping to maintain the roof over our heads.
Truthfully, I mostly can be as private as I want.
My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth, but I don't think I truly trusted her.
I grew up knowing only war, so for me, it was the way things were. It wasn't pleasant by any means.
I do wish somewhere there was a film of our stage production of 'My Fair Lady.'
Growing up in England, of course you do absorb certain ways the royals wave their hands and carry themselves.
In my early years, I was much too ignorant and didn't realize how desperately important it all is, how really important the lyrics are. And for me as a singer, I am a lady who takes the lyrics first.
I'm not very good with some of the more modern songs that have an awful lot of 'doo wah wahs,' if you know what I mean, because I can't do anything with them.
Let me put it this way: I can sing a hell of an 'Old Man River,' way down in the bass.
I am thrilled to be dame. It's one of those - the fact that you have been honored by your country is what it's all about, and it just feels good right there.
I'm beginning to think that I like the behind-the-scenes work as much as I do in front of the camera as I get a little bit older.
I'm not very good with rap and things like that.
I like - I actually love classical music very much.
'Simeon's Gift' is really - it's about a musician who - in the Middle Ages, who goes out to find his muse.
I was always told I was not pretty enough.
I did all of my learning on 'My Fair Lady.'
I'm just honored that some of my little contributions I've written with my daughter are doing well.
I had no education whatsoever, and my mother said, 'Oh, you'll get a much better education in life.' I did to some extent, though I always wish I could have tried it.
You take any job that comes along, and if you're really lucky, the movie takes off.
Our first visit to the Creature Shop is one of the days I will never, ever forget. There was just so much to see and admire and be gobsmacked by.
The arts are usually the first thing to be cut in schools or regional programs.
You're always changing your thoughts about things.
How dare one act like a diva when you have a lot of work to do and you need to find your disciplines and so on?
I had a lot of learning on my feet.
I think any director is intimidating.
If you've been fortunate enough to do a film that appeals to the entire family, that's the audience that's probably going to come back to you in something else.
I did a lot of touring in my youth, and I learnt very quickly that giving is what it's all about. It's about the gift of making an audience feel great and forget their cares, if only for a few hours.
Who would have thought that a story about a professor of phonetics would result in it being probably one of the great shows ever for musical theatre? It's a seemingly odd subject.
I really feel very blessed, and I don't forget it, either; there's an awful lot of wonderful talent in this world, and I just seem to be in the right place at the right time.
I was working from a very early age.
A lot of films seem to go to the lowest common denominator.
I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.'
I was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.
And I think as long as a song has beautiful lyrics, I'm so happy.
As a rule, my focus is on classical music, but I love jazz. I love everything, actually.
I play with my grandchildren. I tend to my garden, which I love. Of course, I love to read, and family is really what it's all about.
I don't think I have the image that say, Judy Garland has, or Bette Davis.
Use your knowledge, and your heart, to stand up for those who can't stand, speak for those who can't speak, be a beacon of light for those whose lives have become dark.
A lot of my life happened in great, wonderful bursts of good fortune, and then I would race to be worthy of it.
Singing has never been particularly easy for me.
I don't want to be thought of as wholesome.
I adored my birth father and constantly worried that I was being disloyal to him and his schoolteacher roots if I spent too much time performing and enjoying it.
The thrill of being in front of a camera remains exactly the same.
If the director says you can do better, particularly in a love scene, then it is rather embarrassing.
Feed the body food and drink, it will survive today. Feed the soul art and music, it will live forever.
I've got a good right hook.
Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.
I thought it was all a flash in the pan. It wasn't until Broadway came along that I felt I had really made it.
I love singing, and I came to absolutely adore it in the later part of my career.
If you're passionate about what you do, then go for it wholeheartedly. Be prepared that if anytime, you may be surprised by a phenomenal opportunity that may come your way, and that's when I say, do your homework. Be ready.
I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.
Miracles, contrary to popular belief, do not just happen. A miracle is the achievement of the impossible, and it is only when we put aside out greed, anger, pride and prejudice so that our minds are open and ready to accept it, that a miracle can occur.
I'd like to be an original, to be myself and not a pale copy of anyone else.
I hate the word wholesome.
It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round.
I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.
If you remain calm in the midst of great chaos, it is the surest guarantee the it will eventually subside
I am an optimistic lady.
Hopefully, I brought people a certain joy. That will be a wonderful legacy.
Garry Marshall is a joy. I feel so utterly safe in his hands.
The anateur works until they get something right. The professional works until they can't go wrong.
Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.
Beginnings are always hard.
Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it.
Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.
You never feel lonely if you're writing, because you're living with all these characters in your head.
I was lucky enough to be the lady that was asked to be Maria in the Sound Of Music, and that film was fortunate enough to be huge hit. The same with Mary Poppins. I got terribly lucky in that respect.
I was raised never to carp about things and never to moan, because in vaudeville, which is my background, you just got on with it through all kinds of adversities.
I was a child prodigy who had a freak voice of something like four octaves.
Have you noticed how nobody ever looks up? Nobody looks at chimneys, or trees against the sky, or the tops of buildings. Everybody just looks down at the pavement or their shoes. The whole world could pass them by and most people wouldn't notice.
Success is failing nineteen times and soaring the twentieth.
You never start out being a star.
I would like to make one thing quite clear. ... I never explain anything.
I have been called a nun with a switchblade where my privacy is concerned. I think there's a point where one says, that's for family, that's for me.
Words are what make the song. I get a personal vision about what the lyrics are about.
All love shifts and changes. I don't know if you can be wholeheartedly in love all the time.
If you just literally stand still for a while, listen and think, things will eventually get sorted out.
I seem to be very busy, and I seem always to be working.
There is no greater thrill than to sing with a beautiful orchestra.
Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.
For me, singing was always about the lyrics. I'm hopeless at singing songs that don't have a core.
