The only things I read are gossip columns. If I read three pages of a book, I'm out like a light. When I pick up the book again, I've forgotten what I've read and have to start over again. By page three, even if I've just awakened from a nine -hour nap, I fall asleep again. So if anyone gives me a book, it had better have lots of pictures.

My father taught me to read music and play the piano-but not well, even though people have said that I'm a natural musician

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 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

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

Be yourself -- it's the one thing you can do better than anyone else.

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