Ethel Merman Quotes
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Be yourself -- it's the one thing you can do better than anyone else.
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I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.
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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.
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I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
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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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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 wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes.
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I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.
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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.
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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.
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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 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.
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Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.
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I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird.
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When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales.
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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.
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Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret.
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I take a breath when I have to.
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I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old.
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Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most.
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Once I had the attention, all I had to do was deliver.
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I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words.
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At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first.
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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.