An actor who is good at comedy can also be very good at drama, but not necessarily vice versa.

My Latin temper blows up pretty fast, but it goes down just as fast. Maybe that's why you seldom hear of ulcers in Latin America.

Failure is the most terrible thing in our business. When we fail, the whole world knows about it.

The success of I Love Lucy is something that happens only once in a lifetime, if you are fortunate enough to have it happen at all.

American people have the ability to laugh at themselves. It is one of the things that makes this country the great country that it is.

The thing I remember about New York was how little I felt. I arrived with one small bag and $15.

I went to high school with Al Capone.

Lucy is such a perfectionist.

Motion-picture studio floors used to be all wooden and not smooth at all. This was difficult when moving a camera around on a dolly.

Al Jolson was one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived.

Lucy and I would love furiously and fight furiously.

Drinking intensifies all your pressures and your needs.

I don't think anyone can tell you what it is that makes you a star.

I learned a lot from Xavier Cugat.

Since I was very young I have always worked hard at whatever I have had to do.

The way the Army does things is sometimes a little strange.

At times we were criticized for doing too much slapstick. I don't believe in mild comedy, and neither does Lucy.

Everyone seemed to be doing well except me and my career. And my accent was no helping me any.

Nobody bats 500. We all make mistakes.

I had started calling her Lucy shortly after we met; I didn't like the name Lucille. That's how our television show was called I Love Lucy, not Lucille.

I learned a lot in those first years in Miami, while struggling just for survival, by observing my father's fortitude.

Good things do not come easy. The road is lined with pitfalls.

A single prop that does not look real to an audience can louse you up. The same is true of the smallest flaw in setting up the motivation in a story line.

An actor who is good at comedy can also be very good at drama, but not necessarily vice versa.

An audience is so important. I would never have had the guts to dub in that big a laugh.

Joe McCarthy and his Senate hearings were like witch-hunts.

When we got married, nobody gave it more than two weeks. There were bets all over the country, with astronomical odds against us.

One of my biggest problems with comedy was that I did not understand some of the jokes.

Its really amazing that two people from such different backgrounds and geographical origins ever got together. That was perhaps part of the attraction.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I still feel like I'm trying to make it. It's hard to shed the struggling actor thing.