My Irish derivation has nothing to do with me. Why should it?

Sheer flattery got me into the theater. Flattery always works with me, particularly the flattery of women.

Both my brothers became physicians and I, of course, wandered into a business where the undisciplined are welcome.

I have heard show business characterized as a refuge for childlike persons in flight from all things harsh and real.

Nations have come under the control of haters and fools.

Talent can be developed, gift is God-given. But artists have both.

Those offers come in now and again. They're not knocking down my door. I'm only an old character actor, and I'm not needed.

Half the pictures directed by men of reputation fail.

One irreducible residual of 38 years in the business is the number of lasting, loving friendships I have made.

In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering rewards.

It seems that entertainment is what most excites us and what we value above everything else.

My Irish derivation has nothing to do with me. Why should it?

Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire.

Vulgar and obscene, the papers run rumors daily about people in show business, tales of wicked ways and witless affairs.

My professional life in Hollywood has been filled with joy and laughter.

The wages of pedantry is pain.

I'm lucky. Lord, I'm lucky.

Not all celebrities are dunces.

I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie, and I wasn't personally sad about finishing a long job.

I hate pride, but if I were going to be proud of anything it would have to be something I'd done myself. Race pride is kind of stupid.

Millions of people thought Archie was a happy hero.

The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable.

All in the Family was intellectual; it was art.

It was a lack of system that made the '30s Depression as inevitable as all others previously suffered.

We don't really need reviewers, just first-night reporters who will tell us faithfully whether or not the audience liked the show.

I've run into some S.O.B. directors, but I gave them back as good as I got.

I do talk less now because the sound of my voice saying over and over the things I said years ago embarrasses and depresses me. Why do I say the same things over and over?

Even a true artist does not always produce art.

Some people thought we were presenting Archie as a false character. President Nixon thought we were making a fool out of a good man.

My mother is Irish, my father is black and Venezuelan, and me - I'm tan, I guess.

It has to do with the fact that Ford, for all his greatness, is an Irish egomaniac, as anyone who knows him will say.

The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland.

I'm Irish. I think about death all the time.

Well ironically my last three roles have all been a mother. One was a Canadian film where the baby was taken away because she is a drug addict, in Irish Jam I play a mother to a four year old. I think in the future I'll be able to handle the role with a lot more depth.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

Our fifty principal cities contain 39.3 per cent of our entire German population, and 45.8 per cent of the Irish. Our ten larger cities only nine per cent of the entire population, but 23 per cent of the foreign.

Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history.

I think the Irish woman was freed from slavery by bingo. They can go out now, dressed up, with their handbags and have a drink and play bingo. And they deserve it.

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.

The basic policy of the British Government was that since the majority of people in Northern Ireland wished to remain in the United Kingdom, that was that. We asked what would happen if the majority wanted something else, if the majority wanted to see Irish unity.

Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal.

The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese.

You think the Welsh are friendly, but the Irish are fabulous.

In 1953 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame.

The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet.

For a man to come right out and say he does not believe in the Old Testament, I think many Catholics across the nation as well as the world are offended by Bill O'Reilly claiming he's an Irish Catholic.

I suffer from Irish-Catholic guilt. Guilt is a good reality check. It keeps that 'do what makes you happy' thing in check.

To be honest I live among the English and have always found them to be very honest in their business dealings. They are noble, hard-working and anxious to do the right thing. But joy eludes them, they lack the joy that the Irish have.

You think that religion is a thing that is there to help you and to see you through life, and then you wake up one morning and find the entire Irish situation, the civil war that's based on religion.