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

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

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.

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

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

I work as often as I want and yet I'm free as a bird

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