Ethel Merman's Quotes

You gotta have a gimmick.

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?

Everything's coming up roses - for me.

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

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

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them.

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.

Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice.

I wouldn't change one thing about my professional life, and I make it a point not to dwell on my mistakes.

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

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

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

Who's happy these days?

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.

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

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

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

Eisenhower was my war hero and the President I admire and respect most.

I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words.

I attend surprisingly few shows. The type of theater that is popular today just doesn't appeal to me.

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

I don't like to read. The only things I read are gossip columns. If someone gives me a book, it had better have lots of pictures.

I Got Rhythm really put me on the map.

I have been ambitious to be a somebody from the time I was 5 years old.

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.

I preferred delivering my performance in person. I liked to be in control. You couldn't be in films.

Chicago is unique. It is the only completely corrupt city in America.

If nothing is to be done in the given situation, he must invent plausible reasons for doing nothing; and if something must be done, he must suggest the something. The unpardonable sin is to propose nothing, when action is imperative.

It not infrequently happens that persons without any other special qualification than the drama of their lives are precipitated into important political positions.