Ellen DeGeneres is coming up on her nine-year anniversary to Portia de Rossi, but she still vividly remembers the vows her wife recited to her on their wedding day.

"Portia understands me completely," the 59-year-old talk show host tells the September issue of Good Housekeeping. "In our vows, she recited a quote, ‘It is good to be loved. It is profound to be understood’ -- and to me, that’s everything."

Continuing to gush over de Rossi, she adds, "What ‘I love you’ really means is ‘I understand you,’ and she loves me for everything that I am. She supports me and makes me happy.”

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DeGeneres also places a great importance on loving yourself no matter what, which is a lesson she learned when she publicly came out about her sexuality in 1997. “When I was coming out, someone gave me the Martha Graham quote. ‘There is only one of you in all time.’ You’re unique, and you’re supposed to be," she notes. "It’s not up to you to try to change it or question it. You’re supposed to be exactly who you are. I took in that message. I always remember it. It’s not up to me to question why, who or how I am. I just accept who I am, and I don’t judge myself.”

Believe it or not, DeGeneres will turn 60 in January, and while she too can't "even compute" her milestone birthday, she's feeling good about how far she's come. "I can’t even believe I’m going to be 60 -- I’m so immature; I’m like a child," the comedian admits. "I know this: I’m kind. I’m a good person to work with and for. I’m putting on a great show that I’m proud of and that makes people feel good. I just try to be the best person I can be.”

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ET caught up with DeGeneres a year after she came out as a gay woman on her then-sitcom, Ellen, and she shared what it was like to share her truth with viewers at home. “Everyone gets scared about doing something different, but I would think everyone is sick of seeing the same exact thing," she said. “You keep hearing the question. You know. ‘Is America ready?’ ‘Was America ready?’ You know, I don't think anybody's ever ready for whenever anybody's first to do something."