Quotes

Thank you for listening to me... my parents never did. -- Austin College (TX) commencement address, 5/19/02

I started my career in kindergarten playing a tube of tooth paste in a play about hygiene.

I love being a parent. (April 2007)

There is a gigantic learning curve for parents, knowing when to shut up. My son Max says to me, "Every time you talk to my friends, there has to be a life lesson. Can't you just say hello?"

I was 31 when I realised I wasn't stupid. Dyslexia was diagnosed in me, along with my stepson Jed and, as it turns out, in all our children. They've had the same confidence issues I had. You can't protect them from that, but what you can do is tell them they're fantastic 15 times a day.

American movies have destroyed people's ability to relate. If a guy puts his head on your stomach, soon enough that head will feel so heavy, it hurts. The reality is that relationships are hard work with tremendous highs and desperate lows, incredible battles and moments of wonder and admiration. You have to take the whole package.

I've been married to Stacey Winkler for 30 years. The key to an enduring relationship is in the ear, not the heart or mind. How you think or feel about what you are saying is not what is important. What matters is how they hear it. After 30 years, there is only one reason to stay together - because you really want to.

The Fonz was the Yin to my Yang. He was everything I wanted to be because there was nothing cool about me growing up. I became good looking when I was 28, when Happy Days started. Suddenly girls were knocking on my hotel door. Being chased was wonderful with a capital W. Holy mackerel, yes! I was happy to take advantage of that for a couple of years.

I could never hang on to girlfriends. I was funny, but too intense. I wrote one girl 150 love letters, all of them misspelt, and waited like a puppy outside her classroom door. Turned out she was seeing someone else all along.

I learnt to have a sense of humour. As an undiagnosed dyslexic, you spend a third of your time trying to figure out what's wrong with you, a third of your time trying to figure out why you can't figure it out and the final third trying to cover up the shame and humiliation.

I vowed two things as a boy. The first was that I would be an actor, the second that I would never be like my parents. My father spoke 11 languages, my mother had no problem spelling. Their nickname for me was dummer hund - dumb dog, said often enough for it not to be funny. The idea that a child should be seen and not heard is arcane and barbaric.

My one word with which to live life would have to be tenacity. My parents were Jews who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. I learnt tenacity from them when what I needed was their pride.

And then I got to act with him for 10 years and he was great. Tom Bosley was our mentor. He was a true artist ... a great husband, and a fabulous father and grandfather. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. --- On the death of series' lead Tom Bosley, who played Howard Cunningham

Tom was a family member, both on and off the sound stage. We acted together, traveled together and played charades together. He was a loving husband, a doting father and a fantastic grandfather. - Of Tom Bosley

[on being fired from Turner & Hooch (1989)] Let's just say I got along better with Hooch [a canine] than I did with Turner [Tom Hanks].

[on turning down the role of Danny Zuko in Grease (1978)] John Travolta went on to buy a plane. I went home and had a Coke. That was probably not a really smart business decision.

I don't always keep my cool like The Fonz, but my love for my kids has given me plenty of "happy days."