Top 246 Quotes & Sayings by Julie Andrews - Page 2

My mum gave me pretty good genes in that department. She had gorgeous skin. That good English complexion. She never seemed to have a blemish that I knew of.

I think I'm just proudest to be the lady who was asked to play Mary Poppins. She's such a wonderful character, and there's so much tremendous talent out there. So I feel very lucky to be the one who got to play her.

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.

You're always changing your thoughts about things.

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 am an optimistic lady.

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.

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

You'd think, of course, it's about the melody - that's a given. But really, I'm no good at singing a song unless it has a good lyric.

For me, whenever I choose a song to sing, it's about the lyric first.

I'm just honored that some of my little contributions I've written with my daughter are doing well.

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'd say almost that words come first, melody second.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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

You take any job that comes along, and if you're really lucky, the movie takes off.

I've always seen the cup as half-full.

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

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.

Singing has never been particularly easy for me.

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

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.

I was working from a very early age.

My voice needed oiling, and then it took off.

I justified working so hard by knowing that I was helping to maintain the roof over our heads.

I'm the lucky lady that was asked to be in those wonderful iconic pieces.

Actually, what I did, because I couldn't make sense of it, and I have to have lyrics that make sense, I decided the best way to sing 'I Have Confidence' was to go completely nuts with panic and fear.

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 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 seem to be very busy, and I seem always to be working.

Some of my own books are being developed - one as a Broadway musical.

I did all of my learning on 'My Fair Lady.'

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 like - I actually love classical music very much.

I grew up knowing only war, so for me, it was the way things were. It wasn't pleasant by any means.

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.

Truthfully, I mostly can be as private as I want.

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

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 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 had a lot of learning on my feet.

My parents were in Vaudeville, in musical. And I would tour with them and had a couple of wonderfully lucky breaks in England.

Growing up in England, of course you do absorb certain ways the royals wave their hands and carry themselves.

A lot of films seem to go to the lowest common denominator.

I was a child prodigy who had a freak voice of something like four octaves.

I'm not very good with rap and things like that.

I've long wanted to introduce children to the wonder of the arts.

The loveliest roles, for me, have a growth arc - a beginning, a middle, and an end - and I'm always grateful when I can find one of those emotional journeys.

I do wish somewhere there was a film of our stage production of 'My Fair Lady.'

Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.

I was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

I turned down 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brody' with Maggie Smith. I think she got the Academy Award.

I'd say just go with the flow. And I take my hat off to any mother out there who works full-time and raises a family as well. It's hard work.

Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.