error using mysql_query

Hi!
I want to create a function that choose a random quote from database but in template-functions-general.php I wrote this function:

function getphrase(){
$query = “SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_phrase”;
$numph = mysql_query($query);
echo $numph;
/*
other queries
*/
}

but mysql_query seems not working because it returns results like this: “Resource id #20”