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

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

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.

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.

For me, singing was always about the lyrics. I'm hopeless at singing songs that don't have a core.

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.

Well it's all right to cry. It helps a great deal sometimes.