I think birth and motherhood are not things that you're trained to do. You might have a good example in your own mum, but nobody teaches you how to be a really great mum.
I had toured around England endlessly throughout my teens, but when I came to the U.S. to perform on Broadway, that was a huge step.
On the whole, I think women wear too much and are to fussy. You can't see the person for all the clutter.
Did you ever notice the color of Mary Poppins' petticoats? They were kind of orange and apricot and red. I think she had a secret life going on there.
I would be a fool to deny my own abilities.
All careers go up and down like friendships, like marriages, like anything else, and you can't bat a thousand all the time.
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.
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.
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.
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 had a lot of learning on my feet.
I've always admired gardens. My father was a great nature lover and would always take me for walks. We lived not too far away from huge rhododendron estates and azalea estates, and when they're in bloom in England, they're just riotous.
I do wish somewhere there was a film of our stage production of 'My Fair Lady.'
I was a child prodigy who had a freak voice of something like four octaves.
I turned down 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brody' with Maggie Smith. I think she got the Academy Award.
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 am told that the first comprehensible word I uttered as a child was 'home.'
I don't want to be thought of as wholesome.
I don't think today's younger audience... would even know what 1920s musicals were like.
Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.
