Quotes from Esther Williams

I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.

Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.

My training in Science of Mind had begun with my mother. She took me to a different church every Sunday, and she encouraged me to question the minister afterward.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.

It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.

With two little boys in diapers, I had to keep it simple if I were going to have a life at all.

I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit.

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

I took a job at the pool in order to earn the five cents a day it cost to swim. I counted wet towels. As a bonus, I was allowed to swim during lunchtime.

No one can avoid a challenge in life without breeding regret, and regret is the arsenic of life.

I always took it for granted that there would be life after Hollywood.

What the public expects and what is healthy for an individual are two very different things.

Which Esther Williams do you want to hear about?

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues

I gave my eardrums to MGM. And it's true: I really did.

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

We can't all win Olympic medals. Even I never won one.

I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.

By the time I got home at night, my eyes were so chlorinated I saw rings around every light.