Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actress Bette Midler.
Last updated on November 25, 2024.
Bette Midler is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.
I wouldn't say I invented tacky, but I definitely brought it to its present high popularity.
My husband calls it winging it - the way I just took what the studios gave me, didn't do my homework and avoided roles that would risk my image.
The worst part of success is to try finding someone who is happy for you.
I'm working my way toward divinity.
I already have a Tony for my Broadway concert in '73. It's one of the most precious things I've won.
I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes.
I celebrate everyone's religious holidays. if it's good enough for the righteous, it's good enough for the self-righteous, I always say.
I try not to drink too much because when I'm drunk, I bite.
After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.
Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it's like a jackhammer.
I got so far away from what they told you in acting class: Do something different. Producers kept offering me the 'Sister Act' movie, but I said, 'My fans don't want to see me in a wimple.' I literally said, 'My fans don't want to see me in a wimple.'
I hope to keep entertaining in some way until I can't physically entertain any longer. It's what I was born to do, and I love this profession.
I made a pact with myself a long time ago: Never watch anything stupider than you. It's helped me a lot.
If sex is such a natural phenomenon, how come there are so many books on how to do it?
I had a hard-scrabble childhood with my parents. I have a lot of baggage. To come down to the footlights and accept the audience's affection inside a Broadway theater - that didn't come easily to me.
Through books and photographs, I saw a world that was not my own - and I realized that there was another world. That's why I'm concerned about education, because it helps our children see other worlds.
I sometimes think I should go back to school to learn French and music, but who would have me?
I learned to accept the audience's happiness for me, which is one of the hardest things for me to learn.
I'd make a wonderful Lady Macbeth. I'll wear a pair of platform shoes or something.
A lot of people have no access to beauty. When I was growing up, my mother had only a few pretty things to look at.
If I could be granted a wish, I'd shine in your eye like a jewel.
I bear no grudges. I have a mind that retains nothing.
When I moved to New York City in 1965, I wanted to be in theater. I was following my Ethel Barrymore dream. But I was too young to be Ethel.
I'd never done a straight play before, never, and it was very hard work - really, really hard work. It was dense, really wordy, and I was determined to learn every word of it - not just skip over bits and pieces.
I feel like a million tonight - but one at a time.
I mean, can I really create a full, three-dimensional character? I don't know anymore. I'm certainly going to try.
As an actor, you're supposed to take jobs that will challenge you or force fans to see you in a different light. By the '90s, I wasn't really an actor anymore. I was someone who went on the road with these gigantic concerts.
Writing a book is not as tough as it is to haul thirty-five people around the country and sweat like a horse five nights a week.
Education is my next big thing. When music and art were taken out of the schools, I went berserk!
Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes.
When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London.
I married a German. Every night I dress up as Poland and he invades me.
Group conformity scares the pants off me because it's so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn't want to - or can't - join the Big Parade.
My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors.
I never know how much of what I say is true.
My whole life had been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first [compost] heap.
I'm the last of the truly tacky women. I do trash with flash and sleaze with ease.
Self-esteem is something you have to earn! The only way to achieve self-esteem is to work hard. People have an obligation to live up to their potential.
Find your Light; They can't love you if they can't see you
The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you.
Make sure your life is a rare entertainment! It doesn't take anything drastic. You needn't be gorgeous or wealthy or smart, just very enthusiastic!
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.
Men's brains are smaller than those of women so they can fit into their penises.
People are not the best because they work hard. They work hard because they are the best.
Life is not fair. And you have to choose your battles, because there are some that you cannot win. If you're passionate about something, then you should pick up your flag and run with it.
I haven't left my house in days. I watch the news channels incessantly. All the news stories are about the election; all the commercials are Viagra and Cialis. Election, erection, election, erection! Either way we're screwed!
If you can accept your differentness and learn to love it and encourage it, then you can be someone wonderful.
Let the sun stop burning,
Let them tell me love's not worth going through.
If it all falls apart,
I will know deep in my heart,
The only dream that mattered had come true
...In this life I was loved by you.
A person's life is a journey, a road. Sometimes you go off the road and sometimes you stay on all the way through. But you are the only one on that road. It's your road.
I'm not interested in perfection. The universe is perfect, and there are some works of art that we see as perfect, but human beings aren't perfect.
Some say love it is a river that drowns the tender reeds. Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your heart to bleed. Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need. I say love, it is a flower and you, its only seed.
A lot of people say that my life is wasted on me because I could be a bigger asshole than I am, but I've chosen not to be.
I firmly believe that with the right footwear one can rule the world.
I want it all - and I would like it delivered.
If only I'd known my differentness would be an asset, then my earlier life would have been much easier.
If you pick up a ukulele, it will make you unbelievably happy.
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?
I have my standards. They're low, but I have them.
Enough about me. What do you think about me?
I think most of us are torn. We have at least two people at war in our body. One person wants to retire and grow fabulous tomatoes, and the other wants to stand up on a pedestal and be worshipped and get bigger and bigger and bigger until she explodes.