BETTE MIDLER

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

I mean, can I really create a full, three-dimensional character? I don't know anymore. I'm certainly going to try.

I never know how much of what I say is true.

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

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.

If sex is such a natural phenomenon, how come there are so many books on how to do it?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I try not to drink too much because when I'm drunk, I bite.

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.

After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.

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

Education is my next big thing. When music and art were taken out of the schools, I went berserk!

I feel like a million tonight - but one at a time.

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 already have a Tony for my Broadway concert in '73. It's one of the most precious things I've won.

If I could be granted a wish, I'd shine in your eye like a jewel.

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.

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

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

I wouldn't say I invented tacky, but I definitely brought it to its present high popularity.