1. All love shifts and changes. I don't know if you can be wholeheartedly in love all the time.





2. Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.

3. Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.

4. I am a liberated woman. And I do believe if a woman does equal work she should be paid equal money. But personally I am feminine and I do like male authority to lean on.

5. I am an optimistic lady. 


6. Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.

7. Garry Marshall is a joy. I feel so utterly safe in his hands.

8. 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.

9. I hate the word wholesome.

10. I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.

11. I love singing, and I came to absolutely adore it in the later part of my career.

12. 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.

13. I would be a fool to deny my own abilities.

14. I've got a good right hook. 


15. If the director says you can do better, particularly in a love scene, then it is rather embarrassing.


16. On the whole, I think women wear too much and are to fussy. You can't see the person for all the clutter.

17. The thrill of being in front of a camera remains exactly the same.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Richard Burton rang me up once and said: "Do you know you're my only leading lady I've never slept with?" I said: "Well, please don't tell everybody, it's the worst image".


21. 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.



22. Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it.


23. I don't think today's younger audience... would even know what 1920s musicals were like.

24. Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.

25. Blake (husband Blake Edwards) and I have this wonderful arrangement that while one is working hard, the other tries to be at home as much as possible and vice versa.


26. As soon as you have one, all those dormant maternal instincts start popping out all over you, like German measles.


27. He stayed in the attic a long time. I just didn't feel worthy... When I got to know more about film, I felt safe trotting him out. (asked where she kept her Oscar)

28. Films are much more my level. On stage I never feel quite enough.

29. All kinds of things have been printed, including much gossip and rumor and finally I feel ready to have my say. I want to be as honest as I can.


30. I had a teacher who stressed for me the importance of diction in terms of - I want to be very careful about how I say this - in terms of supporting one's voice when one is singing. In other words, if you hold on to your words, your voice will pull through for you when you're singing. So be true to your vowels. Supposing you have to sing (from "The Messiah") "Behold thy king cometh unto thee". If you do a strong "thee", it will help you with the "-hold", which is a much higher note. And it's the note before the note that matters, then you unpeel a song backwards.

31. A lot of my life happened in great, wonderful bursts of good fortune, and then I would race to be worthy of it.

32. Singing has never been particularly easy for me.

33. Bette Davis was always marvelous.

34. Does Mary Poppins have an orgasm? Does she go to the bathroom? I assure you, she does. (1982)

35. I hope so. She wouldn't admit it, but I do hope so. (upon answering whether Mary Poppins and Bert ever got it together)


36. I don't know. I'm sort of aware that I am. But I'm that odd mixture of, on the one hand, being a gay icon and, on the other hand, having grandmas and parents being grateful I'm around to be a babysitter for their kids. And I've never been able to figure out what makes a gay icon, because there are many different kinds. I don't think I have the image that, say, Judy Garland has, or Bette Davis. (on being a gay icon)

37. I've learned things about myself through singing. I used to have a certain dislike of the audience, not as individual people, but as a giant body who was judging me. Of course, it wasn't really them judging me. It was me judging me. Once I got past that fear, it freed me up, not just when I was performing but in other parts of my life.

38. I found it hard to get close to my stepfather at first. He began giving me singing lessons when I was about 7 or 8 in an effort to create a bond between us.

39. He was the unqualified front runner - the most generous man I've ever met. And he had such a lovely light sense of humor. I consider it a privilege to have worked with him. (on Max von Sydow)


40. As my mother said, I never sprang out of bed with a glad shout! My voice needed oiling and then it took off.

41. In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and... SNAP! The job's a game!

42. I miss singing very, very much, but the best thing is I have never been busier.

43. New York was an assault on my senses in every way.

44. I was very green and very green about being in America. An 18-year-old girl is like a 16-year-old girl over here. I felt very young and out of my depth. I would stop in shop doorways because I would get so dizzy from the pace.

45. He was a dear friend, a true mentor and the epitome of a gentle man.

46. A routine procedure that I was told would not be threatening to my vocal chords.

47. The pleasure is in being allowed to play in so many different sandboxes.


48. He is adored and adorable. He was a calming, grave, gentle man who remained a tremendous friend to me all these years.





49. And I have a hunch that (husband) Blake (Edwards) has got something up his sleeve.

50. 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.

51. The amateur works until they get something right. The professional works until they can't go wrong.

52. Once in a while I experience an emotion onstage that is so gut-wrenching, so heart-stopping, that I could weep with gratitude and joy. The feeling catches and magnifies so rapidly that it threatens to engulf me.

53. 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.

54. Life is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius.


55. Success is terrifying. Like happiness, it is often appreciated in retrospect. It's only later that you place it in perspective. Years from now, I'll look back and say: "God, wasn't it wonderful?" 



56. Hopefully, I brought people a certain joy. That will be a wonderful legacy.

57. Can I give them what they think they're going to get from me? That's always the big question.

58. I saw "The Sound of Music" again recently, and I loved it. Probably it's a more valuable film now than when it first came out, because some of the things it stood for have already disappeared. There's a kind of naive loveliness about it, and love goes by so fast ... love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it?

59. I'm more contented and at peace with myself now than I was as a box-office queen. I'm less uptight. I've even reached a stage where it doesn't shatter me if somebody prints something bad about me. 


60. I certainly wouldn't compare the rewards of watching one's children grow and mature with that of money piling up at the box office. Both are pleasant, but to varying degrees. As the old saying goes, you can't take an audience home with you. You can't depend on the loyalty of fans, who, after all is said and done, are just faceless people one seldom sees. And few stars have their fans forever. But a child is forever. That bond and relationship is timeless and doesn't depend on your looks, age or popularity at the moment.

61. I think of part of myself as a very passionate person, but I don't think that comes across. I don't know where it comes from, that reserve or veneer of British niceness. But it doesn't bother me if other people don't spot the passion. I know it's there... As long as Blake knows.

62. As you become older, you become less judgmental and take offense less. But marriage is hard work; the illusion that you get married and live happily ever after is absolute rubbish. 


63. My first profession was singing, and I'm always guilty that I don't practice enough... I love to exercise, to write, to be Mrs. Edwards, to be with my kids, and there's just not enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do. I just do what seems to have to be done, but I'm never as ready as I think I should be. I try to deal with priorities, but it tears me apart. Unfortunately something always has to go by the wayside. Ultimately, I guess, it all balances out.

64. Every time I do anything, I have to ask myself: Is it a good role, and is it right to do it? There may be sex or nudity or violence in the script, and then you have to say: Is it gratuitous just out to shock people? Or is it there because it has to be? If role demands it, and it isn't gratuitous, I'll do it. It's my job, after all. I'm an actress. I know what I'm capable of - it's other people who have a problem with my image, not me. I hope I can do all sorts of things, not just one type who's all sweetness and light. Unfortunately, people forget it's a role and confuse it with you.

65. Blake does the cooking and I do the washing up.

66. Cleansing is all important. It keeps the skin supple.

67. I am getting stiffer in the upper lip, wouldn't you say?

68. I am not a trendy person, though I like clothes as much as the average woman.


69. I am proud of all our children. We have tried to bring them up in as normal a way as possible.




70. I am very strict with myself. I have a very high protein diet and I have to maintain this to have a decent sugar count.

71. I did suffer from the heat a lot when we were filming in Barbados. I don't allow the sun to get to my face.

72. I don't know where I'm headed. To hell and back probably.

73. I don't think I'll get back to the coloratura, which I don't need anyway, but I'm optimistic that a certain amount of it will return.

74. I don't think people need to come into the bathroom with me. I don't understand why they should be interested.


75. I don't wear false eyelashes or wigs unless I absolutely have to for a film or television, and never ever in real life.





76. I have a children's publishing imprint called the Julie Andrews collection.

77. I have a sort of mandate for myself in my collection which is our mission statement: to hopefully inspire a sense of wonder at some of the very real things like the nature around us.

78. I have made some terrible mistakes in the past, but whether I have done wrong or right I've carried on. I am now about to sit down and remember, start writing and decide how deeply I'm prepared to go.

79. I have really enjoyed all the films I have made, each one for a different reason.

80. I have searched my heart, and find that I can not accept the nomination, when the rest of the company have been so egregiously overlooked.


81. I like variety in my food, so I am all right.








82. I needed to ground myself. I had a lot of baggage that I was carrying around with me. I just needed some answers: I think I'd probably have been a pretty rotten mother without them.

83. I started singing when I was 7. My first recordings were about when I was 12 years old. In those days you literally had to back off the microphone if you sang too high or too loud.

84. I was not married, concentrated on my career, did not touch alcohol at all and was always very disciplined.

85. I was terribly impressed with Chicago when it came out as a musical. I'm happy to see that musicals are coming back.

86. I was the most nervous member of the cast.


87. I'm not going to try to disguise the fact that I suffered with some problems.


88. I'm the one that was lucky enough to be asked to do those movies that keep coming back every seven years or so.



89. I've inherited good genes. I also drink a great deal of bottled water. This business is all about image.

90. In an animated film, you just place yourself in the director's hands and hope you've given them something they can use.

91. In intense heat I can feel quite claustrophobic.

92. In terms of animation it's very, very hard because you don't have anything to cling on to. You literally are flying by the seat of your pants.

93. It is discovered in Princess Diaries 2 that to be Queen, she has to first be married because she is a woman-not a guy.

94. It's been lovely working with Blake. And, of course, I get to sleep with the boss.

95. It's not always easy being the director's wife. The crew wonders if you're going to pull rank.


96. It's very stimulating to try and see if you can nail it when you don't know what it is that you're being asked to nail.






97. My mother was marvellous, far more alive and vivacious than I'll ever be. She always tried to keep my feet on the ground.

98. Success is usually short. You're best remembered for that which is most successful.

99. Take it one day at a time. That's all Blake and I ever promised each other.


100. The Americanization of Emily was the second film I ever did. Then suddenly along came the Sound Of Music.


101. The idea that I'm back and singing again is not true.



102. The old fairy tales are very, very violent, and these days I think we could do with a little less of it.

103. The way in which men want to present themselves-it's such an interesting challenge: the guys have still got it over the ladies in a number of ways.

104. There are so many wonderful directors around these days, and performers. Wonderful movies.

105. To my great sadness, my voice is not doing well, and in Princess Diaries, I am part of a song.


106. Twice in my life I've needed to really get away from it all. Once was when my husband and I married and our children needed to be part of a family. Then when we adopted, again we needed to settle down.



107. Voice-over is the most different thing. It's really acting to song and making those lyrics convey to your audience in music.

108. We've never gone in for Hollywood parties. A good evening for us is dinner at the house with friends.

109. When it comes to make-up, my message is, be yourself and let yourself be seen. Don't slosh so much make-up on that you can't see the real person.


110. When you have a husband who offers you a role on a platter, you'd have to be rather an idiot to turn it down.


111. I think my daughter and I inspire each other. We love working together. When we can, we literally are side by side; but when we’re not, we chat on the iChat or Skype. I get up at an incredibly early hour to accommodate her in her day.

112. To be really honest, (Balancing my career with family life and staying so close to my family) is the hardest work I’ve ever done. If one of them was home sick with a fever, I had an awful lot of angst, concern and worry. When (the children) were good, I was good. But if they weren’t, then work seemed secondary.


113. I’ve had many wonderful examples, including a very artistic mother who was so wonderfully down-to-earth in terms of "Don’t get a swollen head", and she very quickly drilled that mindset into me.  She did give me good, sound advice. It’s part of being a parent. Some children are very talented, and they’ve got to be grateful for what they have.


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