Ethel Merman Quotes

At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first.

I was lucky enough to have the songs in my first show written by George and Ira Gershwin. Then Cole Porter wrote five shows for me

At one time I smoked, but in 1959 I couldn't think of anything else to give up for Lent so I stopped - and I haven't had a cigarette since.

I've never cooked. I can't do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast.

Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them

There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions

Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway.

I remember Tallulah (Bankhead) telling of going into a public ladies' room and discovering there was no toilet tissue. She looked underneath the booth and said to the lady in the next stall, 'I beg your pardon, do you happen to have any toilet tissue in there?' The lady said no. So Tallulah said, 'Well, then, dahling, do you have two fives for a ten?'

Now what kind of an attitude is that, 'These things happen?' They only happen because this whole country is just full of people who, when these things happen, they just say, 'These things happen,' and that's why they happen! We gotta have control of what happens to us.

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.

When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales.

I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank.

I told her that there was something about Christmas carols that always brought tears to my eyes. I added that I also cry at weddings. To me weddings are very solemn occasions. I should have cried at a couple of my own.

I wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes

I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame

Be yourself -- it's the one thing you can do better than anyone else.

Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.

I take a breath when I have to.

I mentioned that I was thinking of getting out of the business after Call Me Madam. I thought maybe I should become a homebody.

I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird

I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old

My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be

My career at Warner Brothers consisted of one musical short subject. I was running around in a bear skin. Very chic.

I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.

As far as dramas are concerned, it's considered passe for playwrights to turn out anything the average person can understand

I've never suffered stage fright. That fascinates people.

Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist

The only things I read are gossip columns. If I read three pages of a book, I'm out like a light. When I pick up the book again, I've forgotten what I've read and have to start over again. By page three, even if I've just awakened from a nine -hour nap, I fall asleep again. So if anyone gives me a book, it had better have lots of pictures.

I was born in my parents' bedroom on January 16. The World Almanac says it was 1909. I say it was 1912. But what difference does it make as long as I feel 33?

Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square.

I wasn't straining at the bit to become a movie star any more than I had plotted to get out of vaudeville and into Broadway musicals

Legend has it that when God created me, he gave me a big distinctive voice, a lot of boldness and no heart.

Everything's coming up roses - for me.

I have plenty of invitations to go places, lots to do. If I'm not working, I go to have my hair taken care of and work at needlepoint

My father taught me to read music and play the piano-but not well, even though people have said that I'm a natural musician

There have been people who have tried to take advantage of me. They want to be linked to me just because I'm Ethel Merman.

Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most

I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words.

You'll never prove you're too good for a job by not doing your best.

In my case, things have pretty much been handed to me

I'll admit - I was honored to be on the cover of Time

[Cole Porter] sang like a hinge.

Who's happy these days?

Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me

I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.

Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret

Once I had the attention, all I had to do was deliver.

If I feel in need of sleep, I just open a book or turn on the television. Both are better than any sleeping pill.

Mom claimed that I could carry a tune at 2 or 3 years of age. Maybe she was a little prejudiced.

The slapdash way producers used to assemble a show seems a little unbelievable when we talk about them now