Ethel Merman Quotes
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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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Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.
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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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The slapdash way producers used to assemble a show seems a little unbelievable when we talk about them now.
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I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
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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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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 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 take a breath when I have to.
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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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Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret.
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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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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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I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old.
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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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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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Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most.
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In my case, things have pretty much been handed to me.
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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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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.
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Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway.