Top 50 Bruce Forsyth Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Nice to see you, to see you nice.”

— Bruce Forsyth

2. “It could still be a good night if you play your cards right.”

— Bruce Forsyth

3. “I don’t want to grow old gracefully. I want to put up a bit of a fight.”

— Bruce Forsyth

4. “My biggest regret is that my mother didn’t see me walk on to that London Palladium stage, being the star she always wanted me to be. But I always say that when she reached Heaven, she had a word with a few agents.”

— Bruce Forsyth

5. “I do lead a careful diet, I don’t overeat, I have fruit and vegetables every day and I drink a lot of water. And my darling wife keeps me so young it is ridiculous. Being with her is an inspiration as well.”

— Bruce Forsyth

6. “When a performer doesn’t get nervous, that is when you have to give up.”

— Bruce Forsyth

7. “My father earned every penny he had, and I would have loved to have bought him a Rolls-Royce because his whole life was cars. Sadly, he didn’t live to see the day when I could have done that for him, which still hurts.”

— Bruce Forsyth

8. “They do say, the smaller the feet, the better the dancer.”

— Bruce Forsyth

9. “On stage, I think I’m 35. Working takes over my whole body and I become a younger man – that’s why I won’t stop.”

— Bruce Forsyth

10. “I’m the leader of the pack, which makes me such a lucky Jack, for openers, here’s a pair of cuties, here’s my darling dealing beauties.”

— Bruce Forsyth

11. “The secret to a happy marriage is if you can be at peace with someone within four walls, if you are content because the one you love is near to you, either upstairs or downstairs, or in the same room, and you feel that warmth that you don’t find very often, then that is what love is all about.”

— Bruce Forsyth

12. “It gets harder every day to get out of bed. I don’t feel like it loads of the time. It is only my exercise routine which wakes me up.”

— Bruce Forsyth

13. “I hate the term ‘arm candy.’ But, look, a woman’s figure is a beautiful thing, and if she has shapely legs, then she should show them off, because men love to see that. Not just heterosexual men – gay men like to see a woman in her beauty and the shape of her.”

— Bruce Forsyth

14. “It may be an old cliche, but I think true love will last; it has no end. But finding the right person is a very difficult thing.”

— Bruce Forsyth

15. “If I couldn’t move, I don’t know what I would do. That would be terrifying for me; I don’t know how I’d cope with that.”

— Bruce Forsyth

16. “Puerto Rico is one of those places you can be as quiet or as crazy as you want, because there’s so much nightlife. I have to take the craziness carefully.”

— Bruce Forsyth

17. “All kids love to get dirty, but if I wandered into the garage, my father would say: ‘Son, you’re not going to have filthy hands like mine. You’re going into show business.’”

— Bruce Forsyth

18. “It’s frightening, the way life speeds up. When you’re at school, time can’t go fast enough.”

— Bruce Forsyth

19. “That Mick Jagger, I feel sorry for him. After all these years he still can’t get no satisfaction.”

— Bruce Forsyth

20. “There are enough tears in any child’s life; we certainly don’t need to add to them in the name of entertainment.”

— Bruce Forsyth

21. “Lots of people come up to me and call me Sir Bruce now. Interviewers call me Sir with every question, but I never make a point of making people call me Sir. It doesn’t matter to me, though; it was a great honour to be knighted. I’m very proud of it.”

— Bruce Forsyth

22. “In my mind, everything is too sanitised on television – what is wrong with things going wrong?”

— Bruce Forsyth

23. “Some people hate the sight of me as soon as they see me on television. They loathe the look of me, and I accept that from the days of variety. I would walk on and some people would open a newspaper and think, ‘He’s first on, so he can’t be any good.’ I accept that.”

— Bruce Forsyth

24. “My holidays are very important. Mind you, I take a very long one every year.”

— Bruce Forsyth

25. “A round of golf is the ideal antidote to stress.”

— Bruce Forsyth

26. “I’m not even really a joke-teller. I can do ad-lib and banter, but I don’t do jokes.”

— Bruce Forsyth

27. “No one – apart from my agent, perhaps – should leave one of my shows in tears.”

— Bruce Forsyth

28. “People think I am the crazy person on stage, but I know how to relax.”

— Bruce Forsyth

29. “It’s sad when you see most of your friends in the business gone, like Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howard, Eric Morecambe, Roy Castle, Les Dawson. They were very dear to me. You no longer have the chance to bump into them at a celebrity do.”

— Bruce Forsyth

30. “You can shuffle my deck any day!”

— Bruce Forsyth

31. “It’s important for a dancer to wear very tight underpants. I used to feel a bit exposed if I wasn’t being held up in the right place.”

— Bruce Forsyth

32. “I hate Mondays – I hate that feeling you’ve got to get yourself up.”

— Bruce Forsyth

33. “If I go out one night, I must stay in the next. It’s the same with my golf. If I play one day, I don’t play the next. I try to pace myself.”

— Bruce Forsyth

34. “I don’t do close-ups any more. I am better looking from the waist downwards.”

— Bruce Forsyth

35. “I love getting on You Tube to look at the old comics. I am in my element seeing guys like Jack Benny and Phil Silvers give interviews.”

— Bruce Forsyth

36. “Although I’m predominantly known for game-shows, I do prefer to be known as a performer.”

— Bruce Forsyth

37. “When I married Wilnelia, one of the first things I wanted to know about Puerto Rico was the quality of the golf courses.”

— Bruce Forsyth

38. “I can tell by the way somebody walks if they can dance or not. Just by the rhythm.”

— Bruce Forsyth

39. “People think I rush around all day long like a raving lunatic. I’m much more relaxed than that.”

— Bruce Forsyth

40. “It’s the combination of marrying a beautiful woman three decades younger and my iPad that keeps me young.”

— Bruce Forsyth

41. “Once you’ve experienced the warmth of an audience, the achievement of getting your first laugh, and entertaining them, singing or playing piano, it just keeps it all going.”

— Bruce Forsyth

42. “When I was in the business as a young performer, it was a recognised fact that when you got to 60 you were out, because there’d be a new crop of comics coming up all the time, every 10 years or so.”

— Bruce Forsyth

43. “Not working is bad for you. It is my drug, it gives me a high; most performers will tell you that. And there is nothing like the high that an audience gives you.”

— Bruce Forsyth

44. “Little did I know that there’s nothing more competitive in the world than a professional ballroom dancer. They are as competitive as Olympic athletes.”

— Bruce Forsyth

45. “He was so good at everything he did. You can’t call Ronnie Barker a comedian. He was an actor, and a great writer.”

— Bruce Forsyth

46. “I have no plans to rock myself to sleep in my bath chair yet.”

— Bruce Forsyth

47. “Did you write the words, or the lyrics?”

— Bruce Forsyth

48. “Just doing any kind of work – even an interview for breakfast television – makes me feel happy.”

— Bruce Forsyth

49. “Goodness, that Simon Cowell is a sensitive soul.”

— Bruce Forsyth

50. “I read a lot when I’m away. I love courtroom dramas and I’m always looking for new authors.”

— Bruce Forsyth