Bette Midler

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 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.

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.

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.

Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed.

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.

I wish America would spend even half as much time complaining about plastics in our oceans as we do about actresses' plastic surgery.

Just remember, during the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, that there's a seed that with the sun's love in the spring becomes a rose.

I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes.

Let the sun stop burning, _x000D_ _x000D_ Let them tell me love's not worth going through. _x000D_ _x000D_ If it all falls apart, _x000D_ _x000D_ I will know deep in my heart, _x000D_ _x000D_ The only dream that mattered had come true _x000D_ _x000D_ ...In this life I was loved by you.