Top 120 Dick Van Dyke Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “I found myself thinking about what worked for me, and also what I wanted to do for work, what was important to me, and what I wanted my work to say about me.”

— Dick Van Dyke

52. “Be careful not to trip over the ottoman.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

54. “I was the class clown, you know, that kind of thing, and I gathered around me a group of guys who also were silly. I was in all the plays and everything. But I don’t know, at that time show businesses looked like the moon, you know, it was so far away. I wanted to be a radio announcer.”

— Dick Van Dyke

55. “I did a ‘Golden Girls’ once, which shot in front of an audience, and that went well. I had a good time. But I need an audience, for comedy at least.”

— Dick Van Dyke

56. “So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station. And I was working after school and weekends. I did the news; I did everything. I did – played records.”

— Dick Van Dyke

57. “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.’”

— Dick Van Dyke

58. “I think it’s being thrown at the wolves, we call it in our business.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

60. “I was the worst game show host that ever lived, and I knew it.”

— Dick Van Dyke

61. “Life is like a box of chocolates, I’m a nerd and I read books.”

— Dick Van Dyke

62. “I’ve retired so many times now it’s getting to be a habit.”

— Dick Van Dyke

63. “I like ‘The Office.’ I particularly like the British version with Ricky Gervais. Of course, I liked the ‘Seinfeld’ show a lot. I thought that was an awfully good show.”

— Dick Van Dyke

64. “In general, things either work out or they don’t, and if they don’t, you figure out something else, a plan B. There’s nothing wrong with plan B.”

— Dick Van Dyke

65. “Do you know that I was the anchor on the ‘CBS Morning Show?’ And my newsman was Walter Cronkite.”

— Dick Van Dyke

66. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

67. “It means you never know what’s going to happen,′ I said. ‘You do your best, then take your chances. Everything else is beyond our control.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

69. “Probably one of the happiest moments, outside the birth of all of my kids, was the first time we won an Emmy, that the show won an Emmy. That was a big night.”

— Dick Van Dyke

70. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

71. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

72. “I do miss the rhythms of comedy. And I’ve never been able to perform very well without an audience. The sitcoms I’ve done had them. It was like doing a little play.”

— Dick Van Dyke

73. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

74. “Emotionally, I’m about 13.”

— Dick Van Dyke

75. “I’ve been talking about retiring for years. It’s my standard answer to the question, ‘What are your future plans?’ The truth is, I’ll always want to do things that are worthwhile or fun.”

— Dick Van Dyke

76. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

77. “I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.”

— Dick Van Dyke

78. “I get little kids who recognize me from ‘Mary Poppins,’ and it just delights me because it’s our third generation.”

— Dick Van Dyke

79. “You know, I’m almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now.”

— Dick Van Dyke

80. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

81. “I agreed with his thesis that God was not an all-powerful “cosmic superman” looking down from the penthouse as much as He was Love.”

— Dick Van Dyke

82. “There are people with their iPads are taking pictures so much that they’re not experiencing the moment. They go home and look at the pictures later.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

84. “No, no, it was the relationships. That was that group. People believed that Rob and Laura were really married in real life. You know, a lot of people believed that.”

— Dick Van Dyke

85. “I went from my mother to my wife. And to this day, I can’t bear to be alone.”

— Dick Van Dyke

86. “We had all week to rehearse. An audience would come in at the end of the week and we’d our little show. Most of the ad- libbing happened during the week on the show.”

— Dick Van Dyke

87. “Stan said he used to keep Hardy late, make him miss his golf game, and really get him mad.”

— Dick Van Dyke

88. “Rob Petrie is who I really am – in personality and general ineffectiveness.”

— Dick Van Dyke

89. “My kids are so much better parent than I was.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

91. “I’ve won several Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy, so maybe somebody will let me have an Oscar, and then I’ll have a full set.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

93. “Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good.”

— Dick Van Dyke

94. “So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life.”

— Dick Van Dyke

95. “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!”

— Dick Van Dyke

96. “Every single of one of the station’s phone lines lit up. The switchboard looked like a Fourth of July display.”

— Dick Van Dyke

97. “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.”

— Dick Van Dyke

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

— Dick Van Dyke

99. “The best writers were philosophers who wrapped their commentary about life in laughter.”

— Dick Van Dyke

100. “I’ve always been a bit of an orphan, because actors say, ‘Well, he’s more of a dancer.’ And dancers say, ‘No. He’s really a singer.’ And singers say, ‘No. He’s an actor.’”

— Dick Van Dyke