Quotes By Ethel Merman

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

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

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

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

Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own.

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?

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.

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

Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.

I take a breath when I have to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who's happy these days?

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.

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

Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me.

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

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

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

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

I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.

When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.

I Got Rhythm really put me on the map.

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