Ethel Merman Quotes
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There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions.
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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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Cole Porter sang like a hinge.
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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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Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.
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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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Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square.
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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 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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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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Mom claimed that I could carry a tune at 2 or 3 years of age. Maybe she was a little prejudiced.
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Be yourself -- it's the one thing you can do better than anyone else.
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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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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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My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be.
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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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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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Cole Porter wrote Anything Goes and four more hits for me.
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When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.
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I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
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I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank.
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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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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.