One day in '61, I was looking in the Santa Monica phone book for a number, and there it was: Stan Laurel, Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. I went over there and spent the afternoon with them. And pumped him with questions. I must have driven him crazy. I spent a lot of happy hours at Stan's house on Sundays just talking about comedy.
All of us involved say 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was the best five years of our lives. We were like otters at play.
Do you know that I was the anchor on the 'CBS Morning Show?' And my newsman was Walter Cronkite.
I get little kids who recognize me from 'Mary Poppins,' and it just delights me because it's our third generation.
I'm not a loner. I have to have a life partner.
I don't play golf. I have more fun singing and dancing.
My wife, as proud as she was of me, hated show business for good reasons. There was something about the spouse always being pushed out of the way, shoved aside. She wanted to get away from it.
I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.
Jon Stewart kills me. I love him. And Bill Maher. He does an hour on HBO. But entirely political. It is awfully rough, but he does make me laugh.
I married somebody half my age, and everybody thought I was crazy, but she is just an absolute angel.
Emotionally, I'm about 13.
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.
In the best of all worlds, the producers would take some responsibility for the kinds of things they're putting out. Unfortunately, they don't.
I've made peace with insecurity... because there is no security of any kind.
Somebody sent me a British magazine listing the 20 worst dialects ever done in movies. I was No. 2, with the worst Cockney accent ever done. No. 1 was Sean Connery, because he uses his Scottish brogue no matter what he's playing.
It's more in my nature to be optimistic, I think. I'm one of those people who gets up on the right side of the bed in the morning.
Everyone should dance. And everyone should sing. People say, 'Well, I can't sing.' Everybody can sing. That you do it badly is no reason not to sing.
Once you're dead, your worries are over.
A lot of actors seem to dislike typecasting these days. The funny thing is, that's a fairly recent development. It used to be that actors wanted to be typecast so audiences could remember them and identify with them.
The thing I'm most proud of is my family, the way they've turned out.
