Esther Williams Quotes

I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.

I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.

I ended up buying a restaurant. Already we had invested in a gas station and a metal products plant.

I gave my eardrums to MGM. And it's true: I really did.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers.

There was a policy at Hughes against drinking at lunch, but the men ignored it.

I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit.

By the time I got home at night, my eyes were so chlorinated I saw rings around every light.

With two little boys in diapers, I had to keep it simple if I were going to have a life at all.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

My training in Science of Mind had begun with my mother. She took me to a different church every Sunday, and she encouraged me to question the minister afterward.

Widowhood had done nothing to curb my smart mouth. So much for diplomacy.

Which Esther Williams do you want to hear about?

I took a job at the pool in order to earn the five cents a day it cost to swim. I counted wet towels. As a bonus, I was allowed to swim during lunchtime.

I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you know.

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.

Three events. Three gold medals. I was news, big news, in the sports world.

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

When you're out of sight for as long as I was, there's a funny feeling of betrayal that comes over people when they see you again.

I always took it for granted that there would be life after Hollywood.

I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.

We can't all win Olympic medals. Even I never won one.

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

The animus is symbolized by male figures appearing in a womans dreams and fantasies, as a husband, son, father, lover, Prince Charming.