Quotes by Bette Midler - Page 4 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

My parents have not insisted that we go to college, but she wanted us to learn. Teacher, librarian, secretary, nurse. All my siblings were employed. But I wanted to be the boss, an independent contractor.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Teacher
Independent
Sibling
Copy Quote
Sometimes you have to make your own opportunities, and that's why I'm on TV. I wasn't going to sit around anymore, waiting for the damn phone to ring. I had to create my own place - I've always done that.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Opportunity
Phones
Waiting
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Dream
Love
Life
Romantic
Copy Quote
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?
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Stories
Way
Years
Copy Quote
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!
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Age
Culture
Mother
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Bits
Bits And Pieces
Dense
Determined
Hard Work
Skip
Work Hard Work Done
Work Done Never
Wordy
Copy Quote
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?
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Art
Children
School
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Concerts
Gigantic
Copy Quote
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!
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
House
News Stories
Watches
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Flower
Heart
Rivers
Copy Quote
It's a different world now: Stars come and go quickly, and there are so many of them. I read a statistic that all the record companies combined used to put out around 3,000 albums in a year. Now they put out something like 30,000!
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Different
Stars
Years
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Firsts
Kind
Waiting
Copy Quote
I believe that Judy Garland's artistry was so fine. I mean, when people say: 'oh, she brought so much of her life to her music', I don't really believe that. I believe that she didn't have to. She just was a moving human being. That was her gift.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Believe
Mean
Moving
Copy Quote
I was brought up on rock-'n'-roll. It was sort of funny because I couldn't get interested in anything else - I tried and tried but I couldn't get into science...or mathematics, I just cut myself off from anything else there was to get interested in.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Cutting
Rock N Roll
Rocks
Copy Quote
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.'
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Sister
Far Away
Offering
Producers
Acting Class
Literally
Copy Quote
There's the media-driven universe, in which the public perceives you in a superficial way. Then there's the universe that you actually inhabit, where you have to get up even if you didn't sleep so well, and you feel like crap and your face is swollen.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Media
Sleep
Way
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
War
Thinking
Two
Copy Quote
If someone were to say seriously, "I'm divine," she'd have to be locked up. There are lots of people in mental institutions going around saying "I'm God." But because I'm funny about it, they haven't locked me up yet. And I don't give myself airs, either.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Air
Giving
People
Copy Quote
I'm confident that I'm as intelligent as many people, but I know that I'm not as intelligent as some. So in the presence of hyperintelligent people, I'm a shrinking violet because I don't want to look like a fool. I know a little about a lot and a lot about a little.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Intelligent
People
Shrinking
Copy Quote
What I have in me... it's not hard, and it's not cold, and it's not fierce ambition, that's not what it is. It's a drive [for success], but it's not a drive...it's being driven, it's something I have no control over. It's something pushing me, I'm not pushing myself.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Ambition
Cold
Pushing
Copy Quote
People put barriers up in your path, and one of those barriers is age. They tell you, "You're too old. You don't photograph so well anymore." I know I don't photograph so well anymore, so what can I do? I can do something different, where it doesn't matter as much how I look.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Age
Different
People
Copy Quote
From a distance the world looks blue and green, and the snow-capped mountains white. From a distance the ocean meets the stream, and the eagle takes to flight. From a distance, there is harmony, and it echoes through the land. It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace, it's the voice of every man
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Ocean
Men
Distance
Copy Quote
The people who are out to destroy the environment think they're going to get away with it. Are they breathing different air than we're breathing? Are they eating different food? I mean, where do they think they're going to go? What do they think is going to be better than what they have destroyed? I just don't get it.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Air
Mean
Thinking
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Travel
Country
Thinking
Copy Quote
Even if the whole human race dies off because we keep fighting and killing each other and being heartless, the planet will take care of itself. Eventually, after millions of years, it will cleanse itself, and new life forms, maybe better ones, will come. Meanwhile, we'll have gotten exactly what we deserved: annihilation.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Fighting
Race
Years
Copy Quote
When the movies first started, audiences were dumbstruck to see actresses walking around in evening gowns. They'd never seen anything like that. They wanted to be like those actors and actresses, so the movies informed their behavior. A lot of people started drinking martinis and smoking cigarettes because they felt it was cool.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Drinking
People
Smoking
Copy Quote
I think the essence of humor has not changed. It's all about surprise, facilitating follows. But the context of humor has changed. Previously, the jokes were more related to current issues, political. Today people make about each other either funny or about people like Kim Kardashian. It's brutal. Everything is so much vielschmutziger.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Essence
Issues
Thinking
Copy Quote
I had no idea of being a star, all I knew was that I wanted to be a great actress, I wanted to work as an actress. So I thought the way I would be a great actress was to sing and dance first. Lay a foundation - get my foot in the door, and then undoubtedly, of course, I would be offered great roles as soon as I grew up enough to handle them.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Doors
Ideas
Stars
Copy Quote
Twenty-seven people sang 'Wind Beneath My Wings' before I got around to it. A lot of people saw the movie that I sang it in, Beaches, and what they came away with was that song. They turned to their loved ones and said, 'You know, you are the wind beneath my wings!' The song expressed how they felt in a way a simple 'I love you' would not have.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Beach
Love You
Song
Copy Quote
I read a comment that made me think I should stop singing for a while. And I didn't want to stop singing, because it was the only thing I loved. At first I thought, "Maybe I'll get better and eventually please the person who wrote about my singing." But then I thought, "I probably will never please this person. I should just do what pleases me."
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Please Me
Singing
Thinking
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Cities
People
Want
Copy Quote
Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are doing pretty well at getting noticed - a lot of people are doing pretty well at it. But you wonder whether they'll last, because many of them don't have the ability to get an audience to love them. You say, "That's a fabulous body" or "I like that song"; you don't say, "I love them because I know them." You can't know them.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Body
People
Song
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Dream
Childhood
Thinking
Copy Quote
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.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Bombarded By
Growing Up
Ideas
Copy Quote
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?
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Kids
College
School
Copy Quote
My parents used to park us kids at the public library in downtown Honolulu every Saturday. They'd leave us there at 8 A.M. and pick us up at 4 P.M. - so between those hours, you'd better find something to do! I sat upstairs in the picture room and went through opera, ballet, and theater books. I loved the photographs of people wearing elaborate makeup and costumes - they really pulled at me inside. I was in that library every week for years, until I was about 13. I had a rich interior life, because I didn't have much of a social life.
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Kids
Book
Makeup
Copy Quote
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!
Bette Midler / Singer-Songwriter
Assessment
Land
Party
Copy Quote

Related Singer-Songwriter Authors

Zola Jesus
Singer-Songwriter
Tuesday, Apr 11, 1989
Zach Sobiech
Singer-Songwriter
Wednesday, May 03, 1995
Monday, May 20, 2013
Yuna
Singer-Songwriter
Friday, Nov 14, 1986
Yoochun
Singer-Songwriter
Wednesday, Jun 04, 1986
Yael Naim
Singer-Songwriter
Monday, Feb 06, 1978
Xavier Rudd
Singer-Songwriter
Monday, May 29, 1978
Woody Guthrie
Singer-Songwriter
Sunday, Jul 14, 1912
Tuesday, Oct 03, 1967
Wooden Wand
Singer-Songwriter
Saturday, Sep 09, 1978
Wilson Pickett
Singer-Songwriter
Tuesday, Mar 18, 1941
Thursday, Jan 19, 2006
Willy Mason
Singer-Songwriter
Wednesday, Nov 21, 1984
Willie Nelson
Singer-Songwriter
Saturday, Apr 29, 1933
William Fitzsimmons
Singer-Songwriter
Willa Ford
Singer-Songwriter
Thursday, Jan 22, 1981
Will Young
Singer-Songwriter
Saturday, Jan 20, 1979
Will Oldham
Singer-Songwriter
Thursday, Jan 15, 1970

View All Singer-Songwriter Quotes

Top Authors

Friedrich Nietzsche
Philologist
Tuesday, Oct 15, 1844
Saturday, Aug 25, 1900
Sun Tzu
Strategist
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Albert Camus
Author
Friday, Nov 07, 1913
Monday, Jan 04, 1960
Yogi Berra
Baseball Manager
Tuesday, May 12, 1925
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2015
Muhammad Ali
Professional Boxer
Saturday, Jan 17, 1942
Friday, Jun 03, 2016
Chanakya
Teacher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Kobe Bryant
Basketball Player
Wednesday, Aug 23, 1978
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Philosopher
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor
Saturday, Apr 26, 0121
Friday, Mar 17, 0180
Martin Luther
Monk
Saturday, Nov 10, 1483
Monday, Feb 18, 1546
Mahatma Gandhi
Civil Rights Leader
Saturday, Oct 02, 1869
Friday, Jan 30, 1948
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Mother Teresa
Saint
Friday, Aug 26, 1910
Friday, Sep 05, 1997
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Pope John Paul Ii
Priest
Tuesday, May 18, 1920
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005

View All Authors

Share This Page