Quotes from Julie Andrews

I'm the lucky one who got asked to do 'The Sound of Music' and all the other lovely things that I did.

When I did 'The Sound of Music' and 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Americanization of Emily,' all three were in the can and had not yet been released. So I was driving around having a fine time learning about how to make movies and enjoying myself enormously, and then they were released, and it was quite an assault, in a way.

I do get a lot of gifts. I get a lot of things to sign, too. People do collect the memorabilia. Between 'Poppins' and 'The Sound of Music,' there were beautiful plates that they made, and I've signed a lot of them.

In my life, it would probably be giving birth to my daughter. That probably is the most, the thing that moved me the most, was the most memorable, the most wonderful, the most miraculous. I think a lot of women would probably feel that way, too.

Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.

Who could have imagined that life would have taken such marvelous twists and turns or that I would often be so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time?

'Simeon's Gift' is really - it's about a musician who - in the Middle Ages, who goes out to find his muse.

I was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

You never start out being a star.

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

I miss singing with an orchestra because that's the most uplifting thing that I ever knew. It is just such a fabulous feeling.

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

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.

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.

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

When I've least expected it, an enormous opportunity or stroke of luck has crossed right under my nose. So I tell everybody, if you're passionate about what you do and you love it, do it. But do your homework. Because you'll never know when the opportunity is going to happen.

I am an optimistic lady.

When you are traveling in vaudeville, you experience so many different kinds of audiences, depending on what time of the week it is, how long the pubs have been open, and things like that.

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.

My mother and stepfather were in Vaudeville. And my stepfather was an alcoholic. It was a lot of roller coaster times. But it's all I knew. I think they did the best they could under the circumstances, with me and all the family.

I'd love to have a really flourishing vegetable garden, and I'd love to have a better area for a rose garden or a cutting garden, but I don't. You have to develop a garden in the way that it's meant to be developed.

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 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.

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.