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

Of course, you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus, but that's going a bit too far, don't you think?

Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.

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 I'm one of the very lucky ladies.

When I read to children, I try to become the characters. It's great if you can make a separate voice for each character. Sometimes you can lower your voice with excitement or get more intimate about it: you can lean forward and engage the children as a narrator or as a reader. It's particularly important that you find the voice that you want to use for each character, because then children can imagine that person as you're reading aloud. And of course, the illustrations help enormously.

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