Bette Midler Quotes

I was never really sure what I wanted to do - I'm in awe of these people who knew at age 10 or 12 they wanted to be a brain surgeon, and they did it, and they still are.

At one of my old schools, I didn't tell anyone I was doing my first album because I was worried they'd be like, 'Who does she think she is?' So I just let them find out for themselves.

All through high school and college, my parents would ask me over and over again, 'What are you going to do with your life? What do you want to be?' Well, in my heart I wanted to be a singer like Bing, but I worried about the reality of that dream. Did I think for one minute that I had the voice to pull it off? Of course not.

I don't know, you know, when I look at it now, I don't know what in the world made me think I could become a director. I really don't.

I thought that I could have a career in music. I really didn't know exactly what I wanted to do or how I would go about doing it.

I'm so jealous of people who in second grade knew what they wanted to do.

It was a shock to everyone when I became a rapper. Huge shock to everyone. But I knew it all along. I just didn't want to tell anybody cause then it's like, What if it doesn't work?

I sung from an early age and I was always given nice parts in school musicals, but I definitely wasn't the golden girl. I didn't have the guts. You've got to have a real confidence in yourself to be like: "I'm gonna be a singer and write songs." I never thought it would go anywhere because it's so unattainable to be a singer.

I went from thinking, 'I wonder if I can be a broadcaster. Will anybody give me a chance? Maybe I can get a shot at it,' to thinking, 'Man, I want to do this for a long time.'

I didn't want to look back in 10 or 20 years and say, 'Yes, I always wanted to write that piano sonata or that novel, but I never had time.'

My father always used to ask me what my aim in life is. I used to tell him I don't have any.

At 23, I know I'm nowhere close to where I want to be and where I need to be and where I'm going to be.

Part of me, even when I was trying to get acting jobs, I was still kind of thinking, 'Oh I should do something else with my life.'

Growing up, I would think I want to do this, I want to do that. You change your mind a million times.

I didn't think I ever knew how one managed to be so lucky as to work in this industry. It was a dream I was a little bit embarrassed by.

I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it, or other people made me question it.

Really, my biggest risk was just the initial step to quit my day job to do music. I was packaging and shipping for an art gallery in Manhattan; I went to school for painting, so I always wanted to work around artwork, even though I wasn't really contributing anything to the scene.

I graduated college valedictorian, got an M.A. from Columbia University in Spanish literature at the age of twenty-two, and still couldn't answer the question 'What do you want to do with your life?'

I don't think when I decided I didn't want to be an accountant any more that I was necessarily saying I wanted to be an NBA head coach. I just really wanted to figure out if I could do it.

I'm not a writer. As for direction, I don't have the guts to do that. Still you can never say never.

I definitely understood the feeling of moving to Los Angeles and having a dream to be an actor in films and to get to be a part of things that I loved and inspire people in some way.

There is a period near the beginning of every man's life when he has little to cling to except his unmanageable dream, little to support him except good health, and nowhere to go but all over the place.

Once more September marveled that even the Dodo knew what she wanted to be when she was grown. She simply could not think what she herself might do. September expected that destinies, which is how she thought of professions, simply landed upon one like a crown, and ever after no one questioned or fretted over it, being sure of one’s own use in the world. It was only that somehow her crown had not yet appeared. She did hope it would hurry up.

People don't stand up and protect their dreams because they get spoofed in a way.

I obviously wanted to play for the Kansas City Royals. (Laughter) I also knew that was far-fetched. The truth is I don't really know what I wanted to do.