Don Rickles Quotes

I never considered I might make a career out of writing as I was going to school, so when I did turn my attentions that way, I was very ill prepared, having only what I read as a guide, and no formal training whatsoever. I credit that very ignorance with a great deal of my success.

I was never top of the class at school, but my classmates must have seen potential in me, because my nickname was 'Einstein.'

I didn't learn stories, I just absorbed them.

My dad was not a footballer. He wasn't anything remotely what the average person would say was a role model - but in my eyes he was Superman.

Only the autodidacts are free.

I am a sponge. I don't write things down.

I was mostly self-taught on guitar and that had its benefits. It's a great thing to work through problems on your own.

Do not lose your independent mind, unconditioned mind. You have by nature a very powerful mind. You can find everything for yourself; you can know everything for yourself.

I would love to make my entire career as the guy who did not get cheered. Of course, I'm still going to get cheered by people who think they're smart, and that's fine - they're acknowledging how good I am at my job - but I don't want cheers; I want the boos. I love it.

There are many actors who have not been trained, but self-taught means one cannot be limited. It means you're continuously learning.

I hate the the word 'disempower,' because it seems kind of cliche, but I do think that we take people's ability to self-teach away by creating this idea that that someone else has to do this for you, that you have to take a course, you have to do it in some formal way.

I was the only actor in my family. I wasn't given a lot of advice; I had to work it out.

I kind of love the idea of teaching our kids that you don't have to follow the rules to be incredibly successful and live in harmony and have a wonderful life.

I know that in spite of my varied career accomplishments, the one that will always excite and intrigue is the KKK investigation. It has defined me in ways unimaginable and has always fascinated those who hear its tale.

I was home-schooled my whole life, pretty much.

Storytelling is a universal: every culture does it. There's a reason our religious books aren't simply a list of shall-and-shall-nots. Morals and teachings are contained in stories, which are studied, dissected, and passed down; we remember stories in a way we don't remember lists of facts.

I didn't spend my childhood trying to be a performer; it was a big surprise to me that this was what I was doing. But it has always felt quite natural to me. I wasn't taught to do what I do; I found out bit by bit.

The rewards of my life have been great. I built a company; I left things better than I found them. I have a good reputation. I put the Vanguard shareholders and crew first. That's a huge thing.

There is no well-trodden route to where I am, no formula to replicate.

Nobody ever told me, 'Art is this.' This was good luck in a way because I would have had to spend half of my life forgetting everything that I had been told, which is what happens with most students in schools of fine arts.

My high school didn't really have a good training program, so I did it on my own.

Once you look back on your career when it's over, you can say, 'This is what I achieved,' or, 'This is what I'm driving.'

My parents would say to me, 'You can teach yourself anything better than someone else can teach it to you.' That was the whole ethos of my family.

That which we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so.

Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect ... Your have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.