Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.

I take a breath when I have to..

I'll pat myself on the back and admit I have talent. Beyond that, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Broadway has been very good to me. But then, I've been very good to broadway..

Cole Porter had a worldwide reputation as a sophisticate and hedonist.

I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.

You'll never prove you're too good for a job by not doing your best..

Music, in the past few years... anything singable or understandable is square..

Always give them the old fire, even when you feel like a squashed cake of ice..

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them..

I mentioned that I was thinking of getting out of the business after Call Me Madam. I thought maybe I should become a homebody..

I remember Tallulah (Bankhead) telling of going into a public ladies' room and discovering there was no toilet tissue. She looked underneath the boot….

I am known to be able to take care of myself when I become angry. I don't mince words..

There's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions.

When you are in deep conflict about something, sometimes the most trivial thing can tip the scales..

Now what kind of an attitude is that, 'These things happen?' They only happen because this whole country is just full of people who, when these thing….

When I'm asked how to succeed in show business, I always say I haven't the foggiest.

At one time I smoked, but in 1959 I couldn't think of anything else to give up for Lent so I stopped - and I haven't had a cigarette since..

I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank..

At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first..

I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame.