- People come up to me and start conversations. Dogs sniff me. It's quite an easy life, actually.
- [on his childhood dyslexia] People thought that I was kidding when I would read out loud in school, so they started laughing. For instance, the book "They Were Expendable" I read as "They Were Expandable". People were going, "This guy is great! Expandable! What are you talking about, rubber people?" I thought, "I must be funny, so I might as well continue with this."
- [on the late Harvey Korman, his friend and co-star on The Carol Burnett Show (1967)] Harvey was one of the brightest people I've ever met, but the man could not tie his own shoes. He looked at life from an entirely different angle. I would put him on constantly. We were on an airplane one time, coming back [to Los Angeles] from New York, and we had to land in Arizona to refuel. We were taxiing out to the next runway, and I said to Harvey, "I don't know if the guy put the gas cap back on. It was on the wing and now it's not." Harvey got worried. So he got up and went to the pilot and said, "Your gas cap is not on." And the pilot just looked at him. There is no gas cap!
- It's been such a great ride because I've got to do all the great things I respect in comedy, and met the people I respect in comedy.
- [on his favorite comic heroes of all time] Jackie Gleason, Steve Allen, Tom Poston, Don Knotts. Don Knotts was a really big influence, especially on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956). I mean, look at the guy, his entire life is in his face. And you can't TV surf without coming across an The Andy Griffith Show (1960) episode, where you've just got to watch Don as "Barney Fife". And that's why I put Don in several of my movies.
- [When asked if he runs into Ernest Borgnine a great deal] I run into Ernie fairly frequently. He has a great feeling for seeing and being with people. He travels around the country in a trailer, stops at little towns, jumps in, speaks to people, and moves on. He loves to do that kind of thing.
- [on his on- and off-screen chemistry with Ernest Borgnine on McHale's Navy (1962)] And I went out and did it--Ernie was sensational. I mean, here's an Oscar-winner, dealing with a guy who should be in Cleveland. And to go from Marty (1955) to From Here to Eternity (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), I mean, the Alpha-Omega of acting and here's me, who didn't know anything about this. So one day, I thought I would impress Ernie and see what I know what I'm doing, and I said, "Before we're doing a shot", I said, "Ernie, what is my motivation in this particular scene?' He said, "If you don't get this shot by 5 P.M., I'm going to kick you in the ass." So that was my acting lesson; and that's the only one I've ever had.
- [on Ernest Borgnine] Yeah, I'm afraid--he's unbelievable. He lives not too far from us. And I also do a SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) with him and we do a couple of voice-overs on it. And he will, you know, he comes running down the hall like a 12-year-old, he grabs me, he gives me a hug, breaks a couple of ribs and I see him again in a couple of weeks. But he just is--it's wonderful, he's what 90 now and he just gets in his tractor--or a tractor--his trailer and drives around the country. He will stop someplace for a week and just sit out in front of a store and talk to people. He loves people; he loves just, you know . . . being himself. And what a talent, I mean, to go from, you know, a [Marty (1955)] and an Oscar winner . . . to Fatso Judson.
- [2013, at his friend Carol Burnett's Mark Twain Award ceremony] Ms. Lawrence [Vicki Lawrence] and I go wherever Carol's being honored. This is the sixth city this week.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content