Top 55 Lorne Greene Quotes

Star Wars’ was derivative of ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Flash Gordon,’ wasn’t it?

I received a considerable personal response to my part in ‘Roots.’

There are many ways in which man thoughtlessly destroys wildlife habitat.

The only way we can reduce the number of these endangered species is to improve and provide additional habitat where they can live and reproduce.

A diversity of interests keep me very much alive.

I hope that people will watch ‘Griff’ to see how I handle a role like this.

One world government has to happen.

My little girl was born in Los Angeles, and my wife was born in Bethlehem, Pa.

A woman, by nature, is more emotional than a man and is not equipped to approach certain responsibilities with the authority that has been inherent in man.

The father-son relationship is the strongest there is. It’s been the basis of drama all the way back to the Bible. Notice, Abraham wasn’t told to sacrifice a daughter.

In ‘Galactica’ I play a good guy again. But the truth of the matter is that I enjoy playing heavies more.

The Cartwrights happen to be a family that other families want to be like.

We used our brains to create and program them, and now we have to continue to use our brains to prevent computers from taking over our lives.

I don’t know whether I could ever match my father as a person, but as an actor I try to be like him.

When NBC switched the series in September to Tuesday nights opposite ‘Maude’ it died. ‘Bonanza’ had become too familiar with a Sunday audience. Tuesday just wasn’t the day for it.

My feeling is that no series should run over five years, but I’m glad that ‘Bonanza’ went as long as it did. I do resent the fact that in the last year, the network switched us from our old slot on Sunday nights to Tuesdays without much of a promotional campaign.

I wanted to do a wildlife series. I kept remembering those days in Algonquin Park, drifting along in the bottom of a canoe, and I wanted to transfer that feeling to the viewers.

I think we will have terrorism in the United States as it has been in the Middle East and in Europe.

Competition sparks excellency.

I was typecast in ‘Bonanza.’ NBC officials – didn’t realize this for about a year – had seen me in a ‘Wagon Train’ as a patriarch with a son. So when we started ‘Bonanza,’ they had me playing the father as a 65- year-old.

I played a loving but stern figure of authority and it seems the kids who write me want that kind of a parent instead of one who is a ‘pal’ to them.

In my youth I wanted to be a concert violinist.

Do I drink in public? Certainly I drink in public! Ben Cartwright wouldn’t, but I do.

I feel energetic when I’m working.

People talk about the energy crisis, but the worst future crisis may be in food.

We’re long on conversation in our house. Therefore, I don’t like going to restaurants too much. There are too many distractions.

Wildlife photography takes a long time because you have to wait for things to happen.

I make the ‘New Wilderness’ for the drama. I want people to sit on the edge of their chairs. I want them to laugh, smile, cry.

I don’t believe in retiring. Your mind stops working then.

I played Big Brother in a Studio One presentation of ‘1984,’ and that should have marked me as a villain to American producers. But I went straight from that to placing a saint – St, Peter in ‘The Silver Chalice,’ which may have been one of the worst movies ever made.

I’ve been interested and concerned with wildlife for a heck of a long time.

I look after my car very well.

There’s a million and one things an actor can do with a villain. He can go for all kinds of quirks and tricks. The hero is much harder to define for an actor. When you play a straight role or a hero, you’re kind of stuck, It’s much more difficult to give a good guy interesting qualities or to make him unusual.

Bonanza’ was never a violent show, yet it is set in an era when men wore guns and violence was a fact of life.

Getting old doesn’t frighten me. But I’ve got to take care of myself.

My very first major job in the United States was a heavy.

Too many creative people never get to see the light of day because shows hang on too long.

I was a Shakespearean actor, and a well-paid one.

We still have slavery of all kinds – slavery of thought, slavery of ideas, slavery of cultureand I think ‘Roots’ exemplifies, in a very strong way, man’s need to think for himself, feel for himself, do for himself.

It’s too bad that television needs so much material and does not leave time for quality writing. That’s one of the things I have against television.

In ‘Battlestar’ I’m the military and spiritual leader as well as a father. As a military commander I can treat Apollo only as I treat everyone else. At certain times, Adama has to be the commander and give the necessary orders, no matter how much it may pain him to do so.

I believe in reasoned debate.

That’s the joy of acting, to bring something to it. That’s what makes acting exciting. Just saying lines is not terribly exciting.

A character in a TV series tends to grow and take shape as you go along.

I’ve never gotten into a heated argument with people. Heat diffuses reason.

Yes, ‘Bonanza’ has made me very comfortable. I have a big four-level contemporary house in West Los Angeles and a modest summer home in East Marion, LI.

I learned then that an actor must always be himself, and must not be influenced by the people with whom he works.

I was dragged kicking and screaming into a high-school play then discovered it was fun!

In China, the rich enslaved the poor, and in England and Scotland and all over the world, one person, through his power and wealth and standing, was able to enslave others. Don’t torget, mankind has had wars where we sent armies to enslave other countries; history is full of slavery.

When my father and I were off in the woods or off fishing, we were communicating all the time. We didn’t catch many fish and my father was a pretty good fisherman but he just like to take one or two fish and then we would make camp and broil those fish and eat them.

Characters make a show.

Children are keenly aware of every situation where mother figuratively wears the pants in the home, and they’re scornful of her for it. By the same token, the same attitude on the part of their father commands respect, even If it may at times engender fear.

The world is not the prettiest place in this planetary universe.

In one part of my mind, I regret that there were 15 years spent not acting. But in the other part of my mind, I have no regrets. If I had been acting, I wouldn’t have been able to do so many of the things I have done.

What I’d really like to do is make maybe two or three movies a year.