Best quotes by Julie Andrews

PassionI 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.

MotivationIf 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.

SuccessHappinessFearSuccess 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.’

HappinessMusicLoveI 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?

MindMiracles, 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.

FearI'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.

AgeMarriageAs 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.

MusicBooksArtSadly I don't sing. I missed it for a long time, but my daughter Emma said something wonderful when I was feeling blue one day: "Mom, you've just found a different way of using your voice, and that's with your books." In a way, she's right. It's just a different way of expressing what I feel about music, individuality, art and all the things I've always loved.

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

In a way I do hate the process of writing. It's like learning a role where you never think you're going to be able to conquer it when you start and it just takes enough focus and narrowing and getting enthusiastic and not losing it and so on. It's never good enough, but you aim for something and you hope it comes somewhat close. But it is a pleasure once you have written it.

I'm never lonely when I'm writing, because you live with the characters that are so alive in your mind. And you really see them and know them and get to be friends with them.

I do ask myself sometimes, what am I doing writing about animals that talk like we do? But I guess it's okay if it brings across a point.

For the last time, you cannot wear that cropped fleece vest

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.

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

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

I can't believe 50 years have gone by since that film was released. I blinked and suddenly here I am. We all really felt blessed and as for me; how lucky can a girl get. Great music does more than enhance a film, it cements our memories in the film going experience.

I think it's the essence of any film and any stage production - any work where you do work with other people - of course collaboration is hugely important. One does for awhile become family.

I'm thrilled in a way because musicals should be preserved. It's mostly unique to America, and they give us so much joy.

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

Mary Poppins is magical and fun.

I don't think I have the image that say, Judy Garland has, or Bette Davis.

My sense of the family history is somewhat sketchy, because my mother kept a great deal to herself.

I work out as little as I can for as much gain as I can. Yoga and a little bit of ballet -- only 30 or 40 minutes every other day. I keep supple for myself more than for roles.

My first memoir, 'Home,' was about my childhood, early training and formative years in the Theater, i am so pleased that my good friends at the Hachette Book Group have encouraged me to share the next phase of my life, beginning with my arrival in Hollywood and the wonderful movies and television programs I was asked to be a part of.

I think I'm one of the very lucky ladies.

When I read to children, I try to become the characters. It's great if you can make a separate voice for each character. Sometimes you can lower your voice with excitement or get more intimate about it: you can lean forward and engage the children as a narrator or as a reader. It's particularly important that you find the voice that you want to use for each character, because then children can imagine that person as you're reading aloud. And of course, the illustrations help enormously.

I don't sing the way I used to, so I'm doing everything I can to put the word out that they shouldn't expect that.

When I start to write, I see my stories as a kind of movie. For instance, I ask myself, "What kind of opening do I want for this book?"

I've got a good right hook.

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.

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.

My husband knows me better than anyone.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Unfortunately something always has to go by the wayside.

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 don't want to be thought of as wholesome.

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.

Singing has never been particularly easy for me.

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 named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

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

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 am an optimistic lady.

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

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

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

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.

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'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.

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

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

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.

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

Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.

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

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 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.