I wanted to be Stan Laurel, then I wanted to be Fred Astaire and then Captain Kangaroo. I actually started out as a radio announcer when I was 17 and never left the business so that's literally 70 years.
Dick Van DykeRead
I was lucky to get the kinds of parts I wanted. I always said I didn't want to do anything my kids can't see.
Interpretation
Dick Van Dyke emphasizes the importance of choosing roles that are appropriate for children while expressing gratitude for the opportunities he had.
In this quote, Dick Van Dyke reflects on his career choices, highlighting his desire to select roles that are suitable for family viewing. His focus on creating content that his children could enjoy underscores a commitment to values that prioritize wholesome entertainment and responsibility as a parent.
In practice
During a speech about family values at a charity event.
I wanted to be Stan Laurel, then I wanted to be Fred Astaire and then Captain Kangaroo. I actually started out as a radio announcer when I was 17 and never left the business so that's literally 70 years.
I didn't even start dancing until I was in my thirties, and it was like flying.
I get little kids who recognize me from 'Mary Poppins,' and it just delights me because it's our third generation.
Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn - and those are all good things.
I never had a lot of drive, but because I had family responsibilities, I had a lot of tenacity - the tenacity of a drowning man.
Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.'
A house is built of logs and stone, of tiles and posts and piers; a home is built of loving deeds that stand a thousand years.
A young pregnant wife has been hospitalized for a simple attack of appendicitis. The doctors had to apply ice to her stomach and when the treatments ended the doctors suggested that she abort the child, they told her it was the 'best solution' because the baby would be born with some disability but the young brave wife decided not to abort, and the child was born. That woman was my Mother and I was the child.
My father was sleepless most of his life. So by the age of five, I was awake with him all night long, watching bad television or we'd lie in the same bed, and I'd read my comic books while he read his latest spy or mystery novel.
I was brought up in a family which valued natural history. Both my parents knew the names of all the British wildflowers, so as we went walking the country, I was constantly being exposed to a natural history sort of knowledge.
Our children are extensions of ourselves in ways our parents are not, nor our brothers and sisters, nor our spouses.
I was possessed with a wonderful example of my Italian American family. They would come over and join us every Sunday, all my aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces, and I would sing for them.
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