- [on the 1981 cancellation of Eight Is Enough (1977)] Nobody called me to tell me it was canceled. I read it in the paper.
- [on his longest-running acting career]: It was fun doing this and going through my life. I've had a great life. It was exciting. I worked with the most interesting people, and I traveled all over the country
- [Of Adam Rich's drug/alcohol abuse]: There are many child actors, including myself, who never fell into these types of problems. If you're a child actor who can't make the transition (to more adult roles), you can't baby yourself and get involved with dope. Adam was wildly popular (on Eight Is Enough). He was the best part of the show, and then he had a lot of trouble getting roles. He's short, he's in that awkward stage where he's not as cute as he used to be, so he's difficult to cast.
- [Who recalled about his father taking him to different pet stores around New York City]: One week we'd go to Brooklyn; the next week to the Bronx; the next week to Manhattan. Every week I'd buy a different pet. The whole third floor of our house was my menagerie. I had my own little pet shop up there. Everything- snakes, turtles, horned toads and more. In the back yard I had rabbits and a goat. And of course, there was Skippy the dog and Beauty the cat.
- [In 2010]: If a man sits next to you and feels your leg, say loud and clear, 'Stop what you are doing immediately!' And he will stop.
- [In 1989]: Tom Bradford is a lot like the real me. He's a man who always put his career second to his family. As long as everything was OK at home, he was OK too.
- [When asked if he was dating a stripper, aged 16 and his mother made him a tattoo]: Yeah that's true (laughs). It was on my arm, it was a horseshoe. She made me get it, it was stupid. She said, 'I bet you're not brave enough to get a tattoo.' And I said, 'No, I'm brave enough.' I was trying to impress her. In those days they didn't use the electric needle, they used a real needle, and I can't stand blood. And the blood is streaming down my arm, and she says, 'Does it hurt you?' And I said, 'No, no.' What a dopey thing to do. Oh, and then, I thought I would make out with her or something. nothing!
- I'm 14. I'd never seen a naked woman. She said, 'There's one line you say like a question. You have to say it like a statement. You understand?'
- I played Nels on I Remember Mama, and my son -- it was married in 1954. I married a June Taylor Dancer from The Jackie Gleason Show. And my son -- I played Nels on Eight is Enough, so my son was born, and I named him "Nels." I figured it's a lucky name for me; it'll be lucky for him. And he loves his name! But my wife, I married a June Taylor Dancer. They were all so cute. You know how pretty they were? I married -- I think -- the prettiest of them all. But she worked with Gleason.
- [In 2003]: If I was good each week, my father would take me to a different pet store each Saturday. I had a snake, horny toads, turtles, lizards, rabbits, guinea pigs. ... I kept my alligator in the bathtub until it got too big.
- California people are very aware of helping and rescuing animals, but I don't know if it's that way around the rest of the country. I come from New York originally, and it certainly wasn't that way there, not to the magnitude that it is here in California. I hope it gets that way because Californians have been wonderful about animals. These animals are so nice and so good and so sweet and intelligent... it's a crime not to help them. To be hungry must be awful.
- [About his acting performance in his early years]: The three years I was with them (two on Broadway, one on the road), they were like my mother and father.
- [About the house he remodeled]: I'm always working on our home, but I want to keep the old look to it. It had been (actress) Margaret Sullavan's house," he said, "and we bought it from Brookes Hayward (Sullivan's daughter).
- [Who said in 2014, about working with Mel Brooks]: It's great. It's like a game. It's not like work. He keeps you laughing the full day on the set. He's just a funny man.
- [In 2009]: For nearly eight decades I've had the great fortune of playing thousands of roles before millions of people. I've enjoyed every step of the journey. Now, I look back with a mix of emotions: sadness for the people who are gone, nostalgia for times that have passed, but immense gratitude for the wonderful opportunities that came my way. I've titled this book 'Eighty Is Not Enough' not just for the obvious play on words, but as a way of expressing the single idea that has governed my entire life, that every moment of life is precious, that every step we take is an adventure, that every day on earth is a gift from God
- [In 2007]: I grew up in an Italian household, and my grandmother was the best cook I've ever met. So you could say that I have had a lifelong love of good Italian food.
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