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.
For me, whenever I choose a song to sing, it's about the lyric first.
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.
Growing up in England, of course you do absorb certain ways the royals wave their hands and carry themselves.
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 grew up knowing only war, so for me, it was the way things were. It wasn't pleasant by any means.
Truthfully, I mostly can be as private as I want.
I seem to be very busy, and I seem always to be working.
My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth, but I don't think I truly trusted her.
I'm resilient, and I'm professional.
By nature, I really am a fairly bouncy and sunny individual.
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.
I know I probably have a lot of rage in me that I don't show. But I'm not about to wallow in it or reveal it.
Actually, I had a lot of good people with me - my mother's sister did a lot of taking care of me, and I suppose I got more attention than my stepbrothers because at least I got to travel with my parents.
I do not knock 'Poppins' or 'The Sound of Music.' They gave me pleasure, and I know they've given a lot of people enormous pleasure.
Programs that bring the arts to young kids are always the first to be cut. It's mind-boggling to me.
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.
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.
