Ethel Merman Quotes

27 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
[They say I] can hold a note as long as the Chase Manhattan Bank.

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

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

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

Ethel Merman
When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don't show up, they can just forget it.

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

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

Ethel Merman
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

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

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

Ethel Merman