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.

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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.

- Bette Midler

I'm working my way toward divinity.

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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.

- Bette Midler

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

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.

- Bette Midler

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.

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler

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

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.

- Bette Midler

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

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

- Bette Midler

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

- Bette Midler