Julie andrews quotes

My life has been so fortunate. I have had most extraordinary good fortune in my life. I sort of put it into three categories, the three major stepping stones. One being London Hippodrome theater stage debut when I was 12, when it started my career. The second being going to Broadway. And the third going to Hollywood. Each one of those happened under the most extraordinary circumstances.

I don't want to be thought of as wholesome.

When in doubt, stand still.

It's all about giving back, helping people and encouraging people. I love to do that.

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

For me, singing was always about the lyrics. I'm hopeless at singing songs that don't have a core.

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

There will be many times in your lives--- at school, and more particularly when you are a grown up---when people will distract or divert you from what needs to be done. You may even welcome the distraction. But if you use it as an excuse for not doing what you suppose to do, you can blame no one but yourself. If you truly wish to accomplish something, you should allow nothing to stop you, and chances are you'll succeed.

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

You always do that with movie musicals. You prerecord and then you lip-synch to playback.

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 a role demands it, and it isn't gratuitous, I'll do it. It's my job, after all. I'm an actress.

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

Feed the body food and drink, it will survive today. Feed the soul art and music, it will live forever.

My books have three W's on them, which are "words," "wisdom," and "wonder." Words inevitably lead to wisdom, and wisdom inevitably leads to wonder and awe at this phenomenal world around us.

So many things that you can ask children hopefully pique their interest and they can design and think for themselves. Having children draw and illustrate what they saw in their minds' eyes during the story is a tremendous teaching aid.

The music and lyrics of Rodgers & Hammerstein connect seamlessly. Singing those beautiful songs was a joyous experience for me, and one that I will never forget.

Books make great gifts because they're everybody's favorite things.

Success is failing nineteen times and soaring the twentieth.

I do think, where would kids be if it weren't for you and for the good pediatricians, and for the good parents? I passionately believe in sitting a child on your lap and tracing the lines of the book with your finger, and they can read before they know they can, if you bother enough. I did it with my kids, and they're doing it with their kids now.

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

I am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.

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

When adversity hits, go out and learn something.

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

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

All careers go up and down like friendships, like marriages, like anything else, and you can't bat a thousand all the time.

It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round.

Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.

If you're tearing around in a panic about something, then it puts everyone else in a panic as well.

If you can instill a love of reading in your children, they will be ahead of the curve at school and in their lives in general. Their imaginations will be stimulated. I thank heavens for the father that gave me that to begin with.

I've been blessed to be at the right place at the right time.

Miracles are happening every day. I do think that's true. If you can take the time to look. It took me a while to learn that, though some children know it instinctively and they do have wonder when they are kids. But the trouble is, as we grow older, we lose it.

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.

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'd like to be an original, to be myself and not a pale copy of anyone else.

Well it's all right to cry. It helps a great deal sometimes.

A library takes the gift of reading one step further by offering personalized learning opportunities second to none, a powerful antidote to the isolation of the Web.

Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.

When children ask me what's my favorite [role], I say to them, "Imagine having ten beautiful new puppies in a basket and you had to say which one is your favorite, and you simply couldn't because you love them all for different reasons." POPPINS was such a learning experience, as was THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I tell you, every one of them just helped me grow in what I do and did and each one was such a phenomenal working experience.

If you just literally stand still for a while, listen and think, things will eventually get sorted out.

Because of the Thames I have always loved inland waterways - water in general, water sounds - there's music in water. Brooks babbling, fountains splashing. Weirs, waterfalls; tumbling, gushing.

Dear Lady Gaga , thank you for the wonderful tribute. Oh my god, it really warmed my heart!

I certainly embrace all the movement that's going on these days about equality for women and equal rights. In general, I would apply that to all nationalities and all races. I think we do need more awareness, generosity, and compassion than we have right now. But in terms of feminism, I embrace it wholeheartedly. Not in a kind of militant way, but I've always known that it matters.

You never feel lonely if you're writing, because you're living with all these characters in your head.

The film industry is a cyclical business. Even musicals are coming back.

You know, making an animated movie is such a lonesome thing. You mostly don't see your fellow actors or anything. You go into your booth, you record all your dialogue. It's very much an issue of trust. You leave it all up to the director.

There is no greater thrill than to sing with a beautiful orchestra.

I think family matters to me enormously. In fact, family is the first priority. If my family is good, I can do anything. If they're not, I'm a basket case.

The world is full of magical places, and the library has always been one of them for me. A library can be that special place for our children.

Because I come from the theater, I use the images of the theater and of movies a great deal when I write. I see the story in my head. I have to break down the outline of a story first. I have to know where I'm going. Usually I have a good beginning and a good ending, and then I think, "Now I have to find my way through it."

I always knew I had this voice, but it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I realized I had the power to do something with it.

I Google'd myself a lot of times believe me. A lot of people know more about me than I knew.

I'm not singing anymore; that is why I am so pleased to be writing. My daughter said, "You just found a different way of using your voice."

I was fortunate enough to work at the peak of the great golden age of musicals. And then for awhile, I think they were being advanced in different ways. Andrew Lloyd-Webber brought the rock beat to musicals; people tried different things. The joy of musicals is that there is no perfect recipe; it is what you throw into it.

I would like to make one thing quite clear. ... I never explain anything.

Beginnings are always hard.

If somebody can act out one of the books as a play, if they can see a play, film, or television show that's related, that can be so stimulating for them. Anything that makes children engage and think - and love what the story is about - can only bring the most enormous rewards.

Public libraries are our great teachers and storytellers, and are a vital adjunct to our schools. In this day of standardized and homogenized education, a library offers individual and personalized learning opportunities second to none.

Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until it can't go wrong.

I feel an enormous responsibility to bridge the gap between England and America, and be a sort of very quiet ambassador for my country to try to sort of do a "hands across the water" thing where they understand England and English people understand Americans. I adore America.

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.

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.

These days, people like me who are in the arts are perceived as celebrity writers. That really makes me angry because I expend a great deal of effort and spend an enormous amount of time on my books. And I've been writing now for 35 years.

Growing up in England, of course you do absorb certain ways the royals wave their hands and carry themselves. Like most girls, I fantasized about being some sort of a princess.

I hate the word wholesome.

In the old days it was important, but not as important as it is today, to keep making success after success after success. It's terrifying today. You can maybe have one so-so movie but you've got to come back with another that's huge, if possible, and that must be very, very difficult for young talent.

As a rule, my focus is on classical music, but I love jazz. I love everything, actually.

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

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

If you remain calm in the midst of great chaos, it is the surest guarantee the it will eventually subside

I've learned a lot of 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.

It's lovely that the Hollywood stars are crossing over to Broadway.... There used to be such a dividing line in the country between Hollywood and the theatre and that's just melting away. It's just wonderful right now!

I am an optimistic lady.

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.’

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.

Of course, you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus, but that's going a bit too far, don't you think?

I hope that when children read my stories that they evoke images for children. I four stories can help children use their own imaginations and lead them to act the stories out or to embark on related research, they will learn more and learn to love reading more.

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.

Once upon a time, there was a Magic Kingdom made of hopes and childhood fantasies. A timeless place where every land was filled with wonder. A place where everyone who entered its gates would be given the gift of the young at heart.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious! If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Steadiness is coming up short 19 times and succeeding the twentieth.

Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

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.

Behaving like a princess is work. It's not just about looking beautiful or wearing a crown. It's more about how you are inside.

Singing has never been particularly easy for me.

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.

All love shifts and changes.

I think that the best way to explain that is that my mother gave me all the color and character and flare and liveliness, and my father gave me all the sanity and nature and all the things that helped me be a more rounded human being.

Unfortunately something always has to go by the wayside.

I would be a fool to deny my own abilities.

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.

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.

All I care about really is writing something worthwhile for children, something that will engage them in some way and stimulates in them a sense of wonder.

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.

And I think as long as a song has beautiful lyrics, I'm so happy.

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.

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

It is America that gave me so much in my life. It wasn't until I came to America that my life just exploded in so many ways. So for me, I think in a way, though I'm English, I've been living the American Dream and I'm eternally grateful to Americans for allowing me to do what I love doing the most.

The librarians that I've spoken to, the teachers and the librarians who really care and do advise parents and children of what's good and what's out there, they are very special. They have a kind of wisdom that a lot of people don't have.

Words are what make the song. I get a personal vision about what the lyrics are about.

If I am able to sing again it will be through some miracle operation. There's a lot of work being done to help singers regain their voices, but in my case I actually lost vocal tissue so it's very hard for my chords to rub together and I need to replace that tissue. I remain optimistic but not tremendously so.

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

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

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.

I've never minded being disciplined. I'd always rather have a quiet evening in than go to a wild party. Discipline for me has always been the foundation which leaves me free to fly.

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

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?

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.

Be a part of all that is decent and be an ambassador for the kind of world that you want to live in.

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.

Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.

If I'm reading about a river or the trees or the wind blowing or the stars at night, if you can hear that in the music in some way, you've wedded the two and your imagination takes off. To be able to hear that in music is really important.

Quite often I'll turn on the television and something like Sound of Music will be on or Victor/Victoria and I might watch a moment or two. But I don't actually sit down and say I'm going to watch one of my movies.

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

If you're lucky enough to be able to have therapy -- because I know it's very privileged -- it gets rid of so much garbage and enables you to focus on what's important. When I first went into analysis, my mother was absolutely horrified. She thought I'd be a loony!

My husband knows me better than anyone.

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

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 was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

Don't you get a swollen head. There's always someone who could come and do what you do, maybe even better, so be grateful and work hard.

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.

I suppose partially because of the success of the early movies and things like that, I began to realize, that children do look up to you in some way, and there is a responsibility for how you behave with them. I know that it's important to make them feel very valuable, not to talk down to them.

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 think every young girl at some point in her early life wonders what it's like to be a princess. They like the idea of dressing up and the fun of it.

After all, children are children no matter their background.