Quotes by Ethel Merman

• I don't like to read. The only things I read are gossip columns. If someone gives me a book, it had better have lots of pictures.
• I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.
• I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank.
• 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.
• I Got Rhythm really put me on the map.
• I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old.
• 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.
• I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.
• I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words.
• 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?
• Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.
• I take a breath when I have to.
• Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me.
• Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own.
• Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway.
• 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.
• At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first.
• As far as dramas are concerned, it's considered passe for playwrights to turn out anything the average person can understand.
• Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.
• Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.
• Everything's coming up roses - for me.
• Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most.
• I wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes.
• Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.
• Legend has it that when God created me, he gave me a big distinctive voice, a lot of boldness and no heart.
• In my case, things have pretty much been handed to me.
• If I feel in need of sleep, I just open a book or turn on the television. Both are better than any sleeping pill.
• I've never suffered stage fright. That fascinates people.
• I've never cooked. I can't do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast.
• I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame.
• I'll pat myself on the back and admit I have talent. Beyond that, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
• Mom claimed that I could carry a tune at 2 or 3 years of age. Maybe she was a little prejudiced.
• I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
• I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird.
• 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.
• I'll admit - I was honored to be on the cover of Time.
• There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions.
• Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square.
• You gotta have a gimmick.
• Who's happy these days?
• When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.
• 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.
• 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.
• The slapdash way producers used to assemble a show seems a little unbelievable when we talk about them now.
• Once I had all the attention, all I had to do was deliver.
• Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret.
• 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.
• My career at Warner Brothers consisted of one musical short subject. I was running around in a bear skin. Very chic.
• My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be.
• When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales.