I've been lucky - I've been an actor for eight years and I've never been out of work.

I feel that education needs an overhaul - courses are obsolete and grades are on the way out.

I answer a fan with a hearing heart first.

I longed to fly. I was paid in flying lessons and, by the time I was 13, I'd logged 100 hours at the controls.

Meanwhile, Cynthia and I are busy fixing up a real old house that we just bought in Hollywood. With two children now, we just couldn't live in our small rented home any longer.

I've been lucky - I've been an actor for eight years and I've never been out of work.

I noticed that almost everyone I went to college with has worked at something other than the subject they majored in. I guess that' s one of the reasons for campus unrest.

Instead, most colleges are studies in obsolescence.

A policeman, as you discover, has to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse. A man in any other line of work would nail a guy who laid that kind of abuse on him. I know I would.

If I find what I like, maybe in about five years we'll be able to afford to build a home in the country.

I think the most important thing my wife Cynthia and I can do for Kristen is to teach her how to grow up to be a woman and make her own decisions. Meanwhile, we sometimes have to guide her.

I think children learn from example. I don't believe in raising them in an authoritative atmosphere.

I met Cynthia when I was 12, proposed at 16, became engaged at 17, married her at 19 and we had a baby when I was 20. If extra work could pay for a lot of diapers, that was for me.

I'll admit I wanted to be a pilot, originally.

That first year at Universal was a big blur and, naturally, I thought they were wasting me. I didn't realize at the time that I was learning my craft and acting more easily in front of the camera.

Whenever I get a free day, I drive up to some part of California that looks promising on the map.

Frequently parents forget that children are people. I don't try to treat Kristen as an adult, but I do try to treat her as a person, with a child's sensibilities.

Some of the greatest writers in our industry can't get work.

True friendships don't fade in Hollywood, as so many myths about show business would have you insist.

Friends, near or far, are important to us. All of ours have an awareness of other persons' feelings, a courtesy that's inevitable. When I find that consideration in a fan, I'm immediately impressed.

A person who cares deeply about what people need in their lives is someone I'll never forget.

I want my children to live in the country, to be a part of nature.

I'm interested in raw land and trees and fresh air and rivers and lots of animals around them.

Not only that - college doesn't particularly qualify you for the outside world. he world is changing so fast, and college is not. It should strive to be more in tune with the world.

Well, I grew up in a tough neighborhood.

Cynthia and I are very alike in our tastes.

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.

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite.

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.

I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.