Ethel Merman Quotes & Sayings

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. — Ethel Merman

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

Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them. — Ethel Merman

[Cole Porter] sang like a hinge. — Ethel Merman

As far as dramas are concerned, it's considered passe for playwrights to turn out anything the average person can understand. — Ethel Merman

Mom and Pop were proud of my popularity, but from their point of view, show business was no way to make a living. — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

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

Of my four marriages, the one to Bob Levitt is the only one I don't regret. — Ethel Merman

I take a breath when I have to. — Ethel Merman

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

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

I've never cooked. I can't do much more in the kitchen than make a cup of tea and some toast. — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist. — Ethel Merman

The slapdash way producers used to assemble a show seems a little unbelievable when we talk about them now. — Ethel Merman

You'll never prove you're too good for a job by not doing your best. — Ethel Merman

Be yourself
it's the one thing you can do better than anyone else. — Ethel Merman

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

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. — Ethel Merman

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? — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

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

Mom claimed that I could carry a tune at 2 or 3 years of age. Maybe she was a little prejudiced. — Ethel Merman

I've never suffered stage fright. That fascinates people. — Ethel Merman

Legend has it that when God created me, he gave me a big distinctive voice, a lot of boldness and no heart. — Ethel Merman

I Got Rhythm really put me on the map. — Ethel Merman

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

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?' — Ethel Merman

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

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

Once I had all the attention, all I had to do was deliver. — Ethel Merman

My career at Warner Brothers consisted of one musical short subject. I was running around in a bear skin. Very chic. — Ethel Merman

I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame. — Ethel Merman

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

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. — Ethel Merman

There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions. — Ethel Merman

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

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

Who's happy these days? — Ethel Merman

I'll admit - I was honored to be on the cover of Time. — Ethel Merman

Everything's coming up roses - for me. — Ethel Merman

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. — Ethel Merman

You gotta have a gimmick. — Ethel Merman

Music, in the past few years ... anything singable or understandable is square. — Ethel Merman

I mentioned that I was thinking of getting out of the business after Call Me Madam. I thought maybe I should become a homebody. — Ethel Merman

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

My beloved Mom and Pop always rated tops with each other, and that's the way it will always be. — Ethel Merman

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

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

I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird. — Ethel Merman

When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest. — Ethel Merman

In my case, things have pretty much been handed to me. — Ethel Merman