If you can instill a love of reading in your children, they will be ahead of the curve at school and in their lives in general. Their imaginations will be stimulated. I thank heavens for the father that gave me that to begin with.

A lot of my life happened in great, wonderful bursts of good fortune, and then I would race to be worthy of it.

I was named after my two grandmothers - Julia Elizabeth.

You always do that with movie musicals. You prerecord and then you lip-synch to playback.

I hate the word wholesome.

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

Because I come from the theater, I use the images of the theater and of movies a great deal when I write. I see the story in my head. I have to break down the outline of a story first. I have to know where I'm going. Usually I have a good beginning and a good ending, and then I think, "Now I have to find my way through it."