If you're not educated to enjoy the arts, if you're not taken to a concert, or you don't hear something beautiful, you don't know what you're missing.

You'd think, of course, it's about the melody - that's a given. But really, I'm no good at singing a song unless it has a good lyric.

I did 'My Fair Lady' for almost 3 1/2 years, eight performances a week. It was a marathon.

A lot of films seem to go to the lowest common denominator.

There is one thing I should say, and it's important: Young Broadway singers and anybody who is an orator of any kind - lawyers who have to speak in court or pastors or anyone who has a lot of stress on their vocal cords: You should do the maintenance. You should do whatever it takes to feel fresh and good.

I miss singing with an orchestra because that's the most uplifting thing that I ever knew. It is just such a fabulous feeling.

Actually, what I did, because I couldn't make sense of it, and I have to have lyrics that make sense, I decided the best way to sing 'I Have Confidence' was to go completely nuts with panic and fear.

There's nothing like the joy of the arts, and promoting the arts early in children is going to give them such a start in life in a way.

I was always told I was not pretty enough.

I like - I actually love classical music very much.

I'm the lucky lady that was asked to be in those wonderful iconic pieces.

In my life, it would probably be giving birth to my daughter. That probably is the most, the thing that moved me the most, was the most memorable, the most wonderful, the most miraculous. I think a lot of women would probably feel that way, too.

And I think as long as a song has beautiful lyrics, I'm so happy.

When I did 'The Sound of Music' and 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Americanization of Emily,' all three were in the can and had not yet been released. So I was driving around having a fine time learning about how to make movies and enjoying myself enormously, and then they were released, and it was quite an assault, in a way.

My mum gave me pretty good genes in that department. She had gorgeous skin. That good English complexion. She never seemed to have a blemish that I knew of.

Almost every morning when I go to the studio to work, I discover a fresh rose in the bud vase on my dressing table... one living and vital thing in a dusty arena of powder and tissue and matches and greasepaint.

As a rule, my focus is on classical music, but I love jazz. I love everything, actually.

Our first visit to the Creature Shop is one of the days I will never, ever forget. There was just so much to see and admire and be gobsmacked by.

Broadway is a tough, tough arena for singing.

I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.

I am a liberated woman. And I do believe if a woman does equal work she should be paid equal money. But personally I am feminine and I do like male authority to lean on.

I'm just honored that some of my little contributions I've written with my daughter are doing well.

In my early years, I was much too ignorant and didn't realize how desperately important it all is, how really important the lyrics are. And for me as a singer, I am a lady who takes the lyrics first.

How dare one act like a diva when you have a lot of work to do and you need to find your disciplines and so on?

The arts need funding.

You can't bring the arts too soon to kids.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast.

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men.

It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.

Gluttony and idleness are two of life's great joys, but they are not honourable.

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast.

Show me a frigid women and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a little man.

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties, entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad, as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time, such as kindness or cleverness.

What sort of sap doesn't know by now that picture-perfect beauty is all done with smoke and mirrors anyway?

My second husband believed I had such a fickle attitude to friendship that each Friday he would update the list of my 'Top Ten' friends in the manner of a Top Of The Pops chart countdown.

A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men.

Graham Greene famously said that all writers need a chip of ice in their heart; Cusk can come across as the most beautiful ice palace of stalactites and stalagmites, and some people find her company, albeit by proxy, about as inviting as a long weekend in a walk-in frigidaire.

It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.

I am not one of those fat birds who feels miserable because models are thin. Frankly, I feel more insulted by the idea that unless I see other fat birds in fashion magazines, I will be reduced to a sniveling wreck of a human being.

Gluttony and idleness are two of life's great joys, but they are not honourable.

When I started at the 'Guardian,' though, I couldn't think of anything we saw eye to eye on, except feminism, and even this would soon be arguable as 'Guardian' writers queued up to drool over Eminem.

Show me a frigid women and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a little man.

Amsterdam has more than 150 canals and 1,250 bridges, but it never seems crowded, nor bent and bitter from fleecing the tourist.

I am firmly of the opinion that women who make a lot of effort to hang onto their looks in middle age (unless they are beauties, entertainers or prostitutes) are rather sad, as one should surely have something more substantial to recommend one by this time, such as kindness or cleverness.

Nicole Kidman in particular seems to bring out the butt-kisser in the sassiest of hackettes, as they ceaselessly strive to portray her as some sort of cross between Mother Teresa and Marilyn Monroe.

The truth of the matter is, beauty is a specific thing, rare and fleeting. Some of us have it in our teens, 20s and 30s and then lose it; most of us have it not at all. And that's perfectly okay. But lying to yourself that you have it when you don't seems to me simple-minded at best and psychotic at worst.

My second husband believed I had such a fickle attitude to friendship that each Friday he would update the list of my 'Top Ten' friends in the manner of a Top Of The Pops chart countdown.