Television's going, as far as I'm concerned, downhill, and I'm an anachronism.

I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced, and he said 'Yes, but it hurts now.' That's exactly it. I can still dance, too, but it hurts now!

I have four kids, seven grandkids, and four great-grandkids. Maybe I can become a great-great-grandfather if I hang on!

When I auditioned for 'Bye Bye Birdie' on Broadway, Gower Champion said, 'You've got the job!' I said, 'Mr. Champion, I can't dance.' He said, 'We'll teach you what you need to know.'

Today, if you're not an alcoholic, you're nobody.

The secret to keeping moving is keeping moving.

I was 5 years old when the stock market crashed; I lost everything.

So I think we're kind of an alternate choice for people who have had it with sex and violence.

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'm not a loner. I have to have a life partner.

I'm really in retirement. My career is over. I'm just playing now and having a great time. I like to keep busy, and I'm doing what's fun for me.

Don't worry so much. Most of the things you worry about never end up happening.

'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' was a movie that I repeatedly turned down. The movie's producer, Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli, known for his tight-fisted control of the James Bond movie franchise, desperately wanted to re-team Julie Andrews and me after the success we'd enjoyed with 'Mary Poppins.'

As wonderful as they were, my parents didn't teach me anything about self-discipline, concentration, patience, or focus. If I hadn't had a family myself, I probably never would've done anything. Marriage taught me responsibility.

Do you know that I was the anchor on the 'CBS Morning Show?' And my newsman was Walter Cronkite.

Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him.

I'm always announcing my retirement. I'm still not retired.

I turned down some movies that were quite good. mainly on the basis of taste.

I worked nightclubs all through my 20s, and I was a teetotaler.

But once we got on the air, everybody except Morey Amsterdam pretty much stuck to the script.

I don't have any children; I have four middle-aged people.

I married somebody half my age, and everybody thought I was crazy, but she is just an absolute angel.

I've had a lot of writers, in particular, who said they got into writing because of the 'Van Dyke Show.' They said it looked like fun.

Pandering to the scandal hungry public is a total lack of responsible journalism.

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.

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

I can't work with my brother without laughing.

Put me on solid ground and I'll start tapping! At my age they say to keep moving.

But I wish they would make a musical of some kind. I miss musicals so much. You don't see them anymore.

I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit.

Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.'

As for my studies in school, I was a solid student. I was strong in English and Latin, but I got lost anytime the subject included math. I wish I had paid more attention to biology and science in general, subjects that came to interest me as an adult. I could have gotten better marks, but I never took a book home, never did homework.

I learned everything that I know about comedy and about show business and a lot about life from Carl.

I think the saddest moment in my life just happened two months ago. My old nightclub partner passed away, Phil Erickson down in Atlanta. He - I owe him everything. He put me in the business and taught me about everything I know.

My father made about $25 a week. We always lived just on the edge.

For some reason, as time gets short in life, wasting time escaping through entertainment bothers me.

I don't play golf. I have more fun singing and dancing.

A lot of violence, a lot of gore in it, and I just didn't want to do that kind of thing.

I cannot tell you what it means when children recognize. This is about the third generation for me. And when kids that small recognize me, it really pleases me, very gratifying.

I don't think we've got much of a chance to tell you the truth. But our main problem is our audience skews a little older than most shows, and I don't think our people can stay up that late. I certainly can't.

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

I have four children and I have seven grandkids.

I loved to fall down.

I never made a good movie.

I think most people will tell you that. They can go along and, while they're denying that they are addicted, say it's stress this, it's this, it's that. But I - it's - I think - I really believe there is a gene. Some people become addicted and others don't.

I wanted to be a radio announcer.

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.

My kids are so much better parent than I was.

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.

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.