These days, people like me who are in the arts are perceived as celebrity writers. That really makes me angry because I expend a great deal of effort and spend an enormous amount of time on my books. And I've been writing now for 35 years.

I always knew I had this voice, but it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I realized I had the power to do something with it.

Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.

In the old days it was important, but not as important as it is today, to keep making success after success after success. It's terrifying today. You can maybe have one so-so movie but you've got to come back with another that's huge, if possible, and that must be very, very difficult for young talent.

I think every young girl at some point in her early life wonders what it's like to be a princess. They like the idea of dressing up and the fun of it.

I was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

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