Ethel Merman Quotes
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Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square.
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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?
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As far as dramas are concerned, it's considered passe for playwrights to turn out anything the average person can understand.
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I've never cooked. I can't do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast.
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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.
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My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be.
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Legend has it that when God created me, he gave me a big distinctive voice, a lot of boldness and no heart.
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If I feel in need of sleep, I just open a book or turn on the television. Both are better than any sleeping pill.
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Who's happy these days?
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I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame.
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There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions.
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My career at Warner Brothers consisted of one musical short subject. I was running around in a bear skin. Very chic.
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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.
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Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.
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Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me.
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Cole Porter sang like a hinge.
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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.
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Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living.
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I mentioned that I was thinking of getting out of the business after Call Me Madam. I thought maybe I should become a homebody.
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I'll admit - I was honored to be on the cover of Time.
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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.
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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?'
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I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank.
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Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.