Quotes from Ethel Merman

I Got Rhythm really put me on the map.

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.

I take a breath when I have to.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You gotta have a gimmick.

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

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

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

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

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