Latest Don Rickles Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• To this day, to this very day, except for television, I've never had a writer. Anything I've ever done on the stage, happened on the stage and I developed it from there. It started doing impressions and jokes - which I did very poorly. To this day I can't tell a joke. That sounds nuts, but it's true. I exaggerate it and it becomes a joke. Everything I've ever done I've done out on the stage and it became a performance over many many years.

  Don Rickles

  Done, Impression, Jokes

  "Don Rickles (1926 - 2017)". Interview With Brad Thomas Parsons, www.amazonbookreview.com. April 5, 2017.

• What I do is, I make fun of people and I make fun of myself and things around us and exaggerate things. And I'm never mean-spirited. See, the word insult means some guy who's a real unkind human being. But I don't do that, because otherwise I wouldn't be headlining all these years, thank god, and all these people showing up to see me.

  Don Rickles

  Fun, Real, Mean

  "Don Rickles (1926 - 2017)". Interview With Brad Thomas Parsons, www.amazonbookreview.com. April 5, 2017.

• When someone says to me, do you do stand-up I say absolutely not. I like to think of it as a theatrical performance. With me the show changes maybe five to ten percent every night. Of course, whatever I see in front of me and sometimes I get on a little run about it and it changes the show. And my delivery is such that people who have seen me many times say Gee, I never heard that before. Actually, they have, but I might have changed it around.

  Don Rickles

  Running, Night, Thinking

  "Don Rickles (1926 - 2017)". Interview With Brad Thomas Parsons, www.amazonbookreview.com. April 5, 2017.

• That I walk around calling people 'dummy' and 'hockey puck'. I do have a different life apart from being sarcastic on stage. I might kibitz around with my friends, but I'm nothing like the person who does stand up. Nothing like that.

  Don Rickles

  Sarcastic, Hockey, People

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I still think funny, and people young and old still come and see me. That's flattering. The day comes that they stop coming, then I'll know that it's time to retire to the Jewish ranch.

  Don Rickles

  Thinking, People, Young

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• My health, thank God, has kept my brain alive.

  Don Rickles

  Brain, Thank God, Alive

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• You got to have a lot of courage. Secondly, whatever it is you're doing you have to believe in it wholeheartedly. Thirdly, you have to be able to stand up in front of people and know that they'll laugh.

  Don Rickles

  Believe, People, Laughing

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• It's just to break things up between stand-up gigs. I would only do it periodically. Maybe just an East Coast thing.

  Don Rickles

  East, Gigs, Break

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• We show a lot of film [with Regis Philbin] from my career which is most enjoyable. I enjoy watching it.

  Don Rickles

  Careers, Film, Enjoy

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• Regis Philbin is very successful in his own right. We have a new thing where he have chairs and we sit and talk to each other about my career and his career. It works pretty well if I do say so.

  Don Rickles

  Successful, Careers, Chairs

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• Who am I to judge is what I say. I'm 90 years old, for crying out loud, and I don't sit in any chariot.

  Don Rickles

  Years, Judging, Cry

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I don't get into politics. I know [Donald] Trump, but I don't follow that. That's just an aside for him when he has nothing else to say. He never involved me in any of that stuff.

  Don Rickles

  Stuff, Trump, Knows

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• My main success was an attitude. Always an attitude.

  Don Rickles

  Attitude

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• In the old days, that was my ad-lib for hecklers in the joints I worked. It stuck with me. I hardly say it now, say, to fans, even though people do send me hockey pucks.

  Don Rickles

  Hockey, People, Fans

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• Hell, do I remember the first joke? I was never a jokester.

  Don Rickles

  Firsts, Remember, Hell

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I was with George Washington at Valley Forge, sitting around before an attack... gimme a break. That's over 70 years ago already.

  Don Rickles

  Years, Valleys, Sitting

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• My father when walked into a room, you could tell that everybody loved him. They really did. He was quite a man. My mother was more into the show biz atmosphere than he was.

  Don Rickles

  Mother, Father, Men

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• My father wasn't much for show business. He was an insurance man - very well-liked, very warm. He had a lot of friends.

  Don Rickles

  Father, Men, Lots Of Friends

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• Frank Sinatra enjoyed my humor, so I could say almost anything to him. I mean, within reason.

  Don Rickles

  Mean, Reason, Frank

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I knew most of the people there who ran the places, a lot of wiseguys. They're all gone now. All good people.

  Don Rickles

  People, Gone, Good People

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I think they [Martin Scorsese, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra] liked my honesty. My personality. For that, they always treated me great. I, in turn, treated them great. No secret about it. My being who I am - that is that.

  Don Rickles

  Honesty, Thinking, Who I Am

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• Al Capone's my uncle. The old days were a lot different. The Latin Casino was the big time. When I got there I figured that I was doing pretty good, because remember, I started in nothing but after hours joints. I can't even name them now, but that's how I got noticed.

  Don Rickles

  Uncles, Latin, Names

  Source: glamorosi.blogspot.com

• I've never gambled a dime. Never, in all my years in Vegas.

  Don Rickles

  Vegas, Years, Dimes

• I never could tell a joke. I just started talking to the audience, and when the drunks would yell, "Hey, when do the broads come on?" I got good at saying, "Relax. Clear your skin up first." They called me "the insult guy," but it's never mean-spirited. I'm just exaggerating everything about us and about life.

  Don Rickles

  Mean, Talking, Guy

• When you're 18, you're just so busy being scared and having fun - a crazy mixture - that you never thought of dying.

  Don Rickles

  Fun, Crazy, Dying