Top 32 Quotes & Sayings by Carroll O'Connor

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Carroll O'Connor.
Last updated on April 17, 2025.
Carroll O'Connor

John Carroll O'Connor was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned over four decades. He became a lifelong member of the Actors Studio in 1971. O'Connor found widespread fame as Archie Bunker, the main character in the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971โ€“79) and its continuation, Archie Bunker's Place (1979โ€“83). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988โ€“95), where he played the role of Sparta, Mississippi, police chief William "Bill" Gillespie. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played Gus Stemple, the father of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You. In 1996, O'Connor was ranked number 38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. He won 5 Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards.

The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable.
Even a true artist does not always produce art.
Nations have come under the control of haters and fools. โ€” ยฉ Carroll O'Connor
Nations have come under the control of haters and fools.
I do talk less now because the sound of my voice saying over and over the things I said years ago embarrasses and depresses me. Why do I say the same things over and over?
It was a lack of system that made the '30s Depression as inevitable as all others previously suffered.
One irreducible residual of 38 years in the business is the number of lasting, loving friendships I have made.
Talent can be developed, gift is God-given. But artists have both.
Some people thought we were presenting Archie as a false character. President Nixon thought we were making a fool out of a good man.
Both my brothers became physicians and I, of course, wandered into a business where the undisciplined are welcome.
My professional life in Hollywood has been filled with joy and laughter.
Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire.
Vulgar and obscene, the papers run rumors daily about people in show business, tales of wicked ways and witless affairs.
I've run into some S.O.B. directors, but I gave them back as good as I got.
I'm lucky. Lord, I'm lucky.
Half the pictures directed by men of reputation fail.
Millions of people thought Archie was a happy hero.
The wages of pedantry is pain.
Sheer flattery got me into the theater. Flattery always works with me, particularly the flattery of women.
Not all celebrities are dunces.
In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering rewards.
All in the Family was intellectual; it was art.
It seems that entertainment is what most excites us and what we value above everything else.
My Irish derivation has nothing to do with me. Why should it?
I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie, and I wasn't personally sad about finishing a long job. โ€” ยฉ Carroll O'Connor
I enjoyed in every way my 12 years of playing Archie, and I wasn't personally sad about finishing a long job.
I have heard show business characterized as a refuge for childlike persons in flight from all things harsh and real.
We don't really need reviewers, just first-night reporters who will tell us faithfully whether or not the audience liked the show.
I hate pride, but if I were going to be proud of anything it would have to be something I'd done myself. Race pride is kind of stupid.
Those offers come in now and again. They're not knocking down my door. I'm only an old character actor, and I'm not needed.
It's the character that is the strongest that God gives the most challenges to. Take your struggles as a compliment.
Get between your kid and drugs, any way you can, if you want to save the kid's life.
People see Archie Bunker everywhere. Particularly girls; poor girls, rich girls, all kinds of girls are always coming up to me and telling me that Archie is just like their dad.
Nothing but the heart can change the heart.
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