42 Bette Midler Quotes

Bette Midler quotes

1. Actors have to be the perfect blend of complete realist and also idealist. They have to think that they are the best thing since sliced bread, but know that they're not.

2. Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're a real yawn if it goes!

3. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!

4. I didn't belong as a kid, and that always bothered me. If only I'd known that one day my differentness would be an asset, then my early life would have been much easier.

5. I don't have to be well informed - just well endowed. I'm a star.

6. I made a pact with myself a long time ago: Never watch anything stupider than you. It's helped me a lot.

7. I never know how much of what I say is true. If I did, I'd bore myself to death.

8. I rap lite on I'm Beautiful. I have an excellent sense of time. I was thinking of taking up bass or drums because I like rhythm. The problem is, I have nothing to say. What am I going to rap about? My hairdresser? My nails? Actually, that could be fun.

9. I shake my tits a lot. If you don't want to listen, you can just watch.

10. My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors.

11. Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it's like a jackhammer.

12. The only thing Madonna will ever do like a virgin is give birth in a stable.

13. When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London.

14. Give a girl the correct footwear and she can conquer the world.

1. [On Denmark:] ... that little country of cottage cheese and courage.

2. I firmly believe that with the right footwear one can rule the world.

3. You can't just have a clean public space - you also have to have people willing to use it, and something that will draw them in.

4. I read neither good nor bad about me. I let it not even in my life, so it has no effect on me. I am very sensitive.

5. If they [at the audition] don't like the way you sound they won't buy you anyway, ripped dress or no ripped dress, ass hanging out or no ass hanging out.

6. The old forms of entertainment are not extinct. Live performances are the pinnacle. If you can something that people want to see live, then you have a great career.

7. It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It is the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance. It is the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give. And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

8. It's the one who won't be taken that cannot seem to give, and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

9. Culturally, it's very hard to change people's attitudes about public space.

10. As you age, feelings do diminish.

11. I decided years ago not to read stories about myself anymore. Each one is a potential minefield: Whatever it says, you're bound to take it the wrong way. Why do it if you know it's going to make you miserable?

12. Sometimes my brain goes on CD shuffle. You know, you put a bunch of CD's on and hit play and random things come out.

13. I come from an overly confident place. But I'm overconfident because of feelings of inferiority.

14. In a marriage, you struggle and struggle and struggle, and then you realize that you have to ride the horse in the direction it's going. You stop trying to pull the reins in another direction.

15. All these children [who did not have music and art classes at school] go out into the world without knowing that there is anything other than what they have. Of course, children do look at TV, but what does it give them?

16. When it's time to shuffle off this mortal coil, you leave your ashes to be composted.

17. When you reach a certain age, you have fulfilled your childhood dream and whatever your first or second adulthood led you to do. Then you're in your third adulthood, the one that leads to the grave, and you ask yourself, "What will I do between now and then?" Instead of thinking in terms of glamour, you start thinking in terms of reform - your contribution to the world.

18. One of my first role models was Eugene Lang, a wealthy businessman who went back to his elementary school in East Harlem and addressed the sixth-grade class. He looked out at that sea of faces and said, "If any of you wants to go to college, I will pay for it." When I read that, I burst into tears. It was so generous and so basic. Not fluffy. I can't understand why we scrimp on education and shortchange our kids. Why would the citizenry do that to the people who are going to inherit its republic?

19. Most people are walking around the city like corpses; they aren't alive enough to notice the trash. They come from other places and they see it as a big garbage dump. Do you want to live and work in a garbage dump? I don't. That's partly because I grew up in the most pristine environment possible - Hawaii, where it is sacrilege to leave your garbage on the ground.

20. My daughter very independent. But if she's upset about something, she will absolutely let me know. She's great - a real tough cookie.

21. My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap.

22. Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, I'll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice?

23. before one actually visits them, everyone tends to think of their favorite countries as one grand Disneyland filled with national monuments and historical treasures conveniently laid out for easy viewing, when what they really are filled with, of course, is people going to work, laundromats and places to buy rat poison.

24. When I turned 50, I threw myself a big birthday party, and I looked seriously at what my life has been about. I recommend this to everybody. Ask yourself, "What have I done? How did I do it? Where'd I mess up? Where did I do well?" When I did this assessment of my life, I said to myself, "It was really good." I made a lot of people laugh, made a lot of people cry in a good way, brought a lot of joy to people, picked up a lot of garbage. And in all those years, I saw a lot. I went to foreign lands. I met interesting people. And I got it!

25. It is true that in this culture, they throw you out when you get older. I see it all the time, especially in my business. At my age, you're playing somebody's mother - and there aren't even a lot of those roles!

26. The first time I saw a picture of [fabled actress] Ethel Barrymore - she was on Broadway and she was wearing pearls. I thought, "That's who I should grow up to be." It's odd, because it was her physical image that I wanted; I had no idea what it was like actually to be her. In those days, we weren't bombarded by images the way we are now, and the ones we did have were more vivid in people's minds.

27. I married a German. Every night I dress up as Poland and he invades me.

28. Sold my soul. Bought these devil chains.