Top 50 Quotes by 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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?