Dick Van Dyke Quotes

'Mary Poppins' was one of the best experiences of my life.

Today, with the subject matter that's around politically, and internationally and everything, I think Carl Reiner would have a ball. I think the format should stay the same. I'd sure love to see him dealing with it today.

Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good.

I hear music and my feet just start moving.

I went from my mother to my wife. And to this day, I can't bear to be alone.

I found out retirement means playing golf, or I don't know what the hell it means. But to me, retirement means doing what you have fun doing.

My work is just a hobby. No, I wouldn't want to do it professionally. It's too hard. Deadlines are no fun. But I can sit and tweak all night and not worry about time.

[My mother] once cooked a ham and later found it in my father's shirt drawer. I am not kidding.

When I started having kids, I thought, 'I don't want to do anything they can't watch.'

I have four children and I have seven grandkids.

The secret to keeping moving is keeping moving.

The most important thing for old guys is never start going down the stairs sideways.

I think the biggest mistake - I was always a big fan of Cary Grant, and he asked me to do a movie with him, playing the second lead, and I didn't do it. And to this day, I can't remember why. But I could've said I worked with Cary Grant, but I turned him down. That was probably the biggest mistake I ever made.

I think it's being thrown at the wolves, we call it in our business.

I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business. I didn't move in show business circles, particularly, still don't do it.

You have to be able to laugh at yourself. Attitude is almost more important than what happens to you.

Life is like a box of chocolates, I'm a nerd and I read books

There's a lot of very funny people I'd love to work with that I've never met, of course. I love Steve Martin and Jim Carrey.

A producer came to me about doing a memoir, and at first I thought, "Well, it's a little bland." But then I realized that almost everything that's happened to me was the result of being in the right place at the right time. And I thought "Well, luck has a lot to do with it," so I wrote it from that perspective.

I was lucky to get the kinds of parts I wanted. I always said I didn't want to do anything my kids can't see.

We should never judge a day by its weather.

Otherwise, everything got better and better, just one surprise after another. And that's why I wrote the book about a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and just luck.

When I was a kid, I had ambitions for being a television announcer, which was before television took off, you know, in the late 40s. And just through necessity, going out looking for work, I was starting to sing, and dance, and act, and I never expected to do that, nor to have any success at it at least.

I went public with the alcoholism, very early on... the early '70s. Mercedes McCambridge, the actress, I think was the first recognizable person that went before Congress and talked about it, and I thought that was a good idea, to take some of the stigma away from it and say "Normal, average people can fall prey to it." So it's been public for me. I did a movie about an alcoholic. And today, you're nobody unless you've been to rehab. It seems like everybody has some kind of an addiction.

I'm not quite as much of a curmudgeon being old. I'm not cantankerous. But otherwise, I'm about the same.

You know, I'm almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now.

Sing like nobody can hear you, dance like nobody can see you, and love like you've never been hurt.

In my seventies, I exercised to stay ambulatory. In my eighties, I exercise to avoid assisted living.

I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.

Probably one of the happiest moments, outside the birth of all of my kids, was the first time we won an Emmy, that the show won an Emmy. That was a big night.

No, I did night clubs right here in Los Angeles. My partner, Phil Erickson, put me in the business, a guy from my home town, a dear friend who we just lost a couple of months ago.

I had an uncle who had a car with a rumble seat, and I used to love to ride in that thing. I mentioned this to some kids, and they were like, "What are you even talking about?"

I do miss the rhythms of comedy. And I've never been able to perform very well without an audience. The sitcoms I've done had them. It was like doing a little play.

I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state.

'The Show' was the most fun I ever had and the most creative period of my life.

So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life.

My favorite unknown movie is 'The Comic.'

I wanted to be Stan Laurel, then I wanted to be Fred Astaire and then Captain Kangaroo. I actually started out as a radio announcer when I was 17 and never left the business so that's literally 70 years.

I never made a good movie.

All of us involved say 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was the best five years of our lives. We were like otters at play.

You can spread jelly on the peanut butter but you can't spread peanut butter on the jelly.

So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station. And I was working after school and weekends. I did the news; I did everything. I did - played records.

My son Barry, of course, has been on from the beginning. And his son Shane is playing now a med student regularly on the show. And at one point or another, I've had all four of his kids on the show.

There aren't many pratfalls in comedy anymore.

I think that's the answer to a good marriage. Everyone has their own room.

I wrote a little autobiography about how luck has to do with everything. It's called "My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business." A publisher came to me and said write a book so I did. I wanted to call it "Everybody Else Has Got a Book."

I was the class clown, you know, that kind of thing, and I gathered around me a group of guys who also were silly. I was in all the plays and everything. But I don't know, at that time show businesses looked like the moon, you know, it was so far away. I wanted to be a radio announcer.

I sing and dance. That's my job.