What motivated me? My mother. My mother was an immigrant woman, a peasant woman, struggled all her life, worked in the garment center.

Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal - they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You`re damn right they have a right!

The United States, per capita, at a certain period in its history, had the most junkies of any country ever in the world - right after the Civil War. The most brutal war, the greatest amount of casualties that America`s ever had.

My secret for success? I don`t know what the hell success means.

Understood what the struggle was about. My mother. Couldn`t read or write, but she had more sense than many a graduate from Harvard.

America gets the politicians they deserve. That`s it. And you keep struggling.

I know who I am. I don`t have to brag. I know what I contributed. I know what I did. You think you can do it better? Hey, go right ahead. The stage is yours.

I have an old brain but a terrific memory.

I prefer that for my own satisfaction over radio, there`s no audience. TV, there`s no audience. I need the response of the audience, even if it`s a silent response.

I`m for everyone having the opportunity to accept a $150,000 bribe.

Every Friday I used to have about fifty, sixty kids who would wait for me on Sunset Boulevard and I`d take them all to dinner. All runaways.

I think people need housing. And there`s empty buildings, I think people should live in there. If you want to call them squatters, trespassers, hey, I call Wall Street thieves!

As long as you gave it your best shot, even if in the opinion of others "you failed," you didn`t fail.

I was an organizer in the Food, Agricultural and Tobacco Workers Union down in North Carolina.

But find something that you absolutely love doing. And then get to love the way you do it. That`s the uniqueness of all of us. That`s it.

I`ve been in the struggle over seventy years - it doesn`t bother me I may not win.

The struggle goes on. The victory is in the struggle, for me. And I accepted that a long time ago.

There`s more to anybody. Just because you haven`t noticed it, that`s your problem, that`s not mine.

I probably worked every single entertainment medium, including some that don`t exist. I worked the circus, carnival, I had my own medicine show, I worked 18 years of radio.

I went to all the Love-Ins. I took my kids. I enjoyed myself.

I`m more important to me than any body you can mention. Do you know that?

The ruling class is smarter than you, and they`re more creative. And if you forget that lesson, you go down the drain. Because if they weren`t, they wouldn`t be around as long as they have been and as strong as they have been.

[asked about being typecast as Grandpa Munster] Why would I mind? It pays my mortgage.

[on his most famous role, Grandpa Munster] The role of Grandpa is not complicated because you`re wearing odd makeup or bizarre costumes. That`s not what complicates a role. What makes Grandpa a little odd is the fact that he had no prototype. When I approached this role, I knew that whatever I was doing was original. So no director could say to me, "Listen, remember how he did it, this is how I want it done." I worked very hard creating that character. I made those lines work. The walk and the posture all fit the character. As to the character itself, you might say that Grandpa was a kind of Dracula-type Major Hoople.

[On working with Robert Zemeckis on Used Cars (1980)] That kid couldn`t direct traffic.

[When asked what accomplishment he is proudest of] My three sons.