Bruce Forsyth Quotes

People think I rush around all day long like a raving lunatic. I’m much more relaxed than that.

Not working is bad for you. It is my drug, it gives me a high; most performers will tell you that. And there is nothing like the high that an audience gives you.

When I was in the business as a young performer, it was a recognised fact that when you got to 60 you were out, because there’d be a new crop of comics coming up all the time, every 10 years or so.

Puerto Rico is one of those places you can be as quiet or as crazy as you want, because there’s so much nightlife. I have to take the craziness carefully.

Some people hate the sight of me as soon as they see me on television. They loathe the look of me, and I accept that from the days of variety. I would walk on and some people would open a newspaper and think, ‘He’s first on, so he can’t be any good.’ I accept that.

If I go out one night, I must stay in the next. It’s the same with my golf. If I play one day, I don’t play the next. I try to pace myself.

It’s the combination of marrying a beautiful woman three decades younger and my iPad that keeps me young.

I don’t want to grow old gracefully. I want to put up a bit of a fight.

I have no plans to rock myself to sleep in my bath chair yet.

My father earned every penny he had, and I would have loved to have bought him a Rolls-Royce because his whole life was cars. Sadly, he didn’t live to see the day when I could have done that for him, which still hurts.

I’ve always been a family entertainer. Every show I have done has been suitable for any age – parents never need to worry that, if they pop out of the room, I’ll say anything untoward.

When a performer doesn’t get nervous, that is when you have to give up.

I am not doddery… doddery I am not!

All kids love to get dirty, but if I wandered into the garage, my father would say: ‘Son, you’re not going to have filthy hands like mine. You’re going into show business.’

I read a lot when I’m away. I love courtroom dramas and I’m always looking for new authors.

Goodness, that Simon Cowell is a sensitive soul.

I hate the term ‘arm candy.’ But, look, a woman’s figure is a beautiful thing, and if she has shapely legs, then she should show them off, because men love to see that. Not just heterosexual men – gay men like to see a woman in her beauty and the shape of her.

In my mind, everything is too sanitised on television – what is wrong with things going wrong?

A round of golf is the ideal antidote to stress.

It may be an old cliche, but I think true love will last; it has no end. But finding the right person is a very difficult thing.

It’s important for a dancer to wear very tight underpants. I used to feel a bit exposed if I wasn’t being held up in the right place.

I love getting on You Tube to look at the old comics. I am in my element seeing guys like Jack Benny and Phil Silvers give interviews.

It’s sad when you see most of your friends in the business gone, like Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howard, Eric Morecambe, Roy Castle, Les Dawson. They were very dear to me. You no longer have the chance to bump into them at a celebrity do.

On stage, I think I’m 35. Working takes over my whole body and I become a younger man – that’s why I won‘t stop.

I can tell by the way somebody walks if they can dance or not. Just by the rhythm.

They do say, the smaller the feet, the better the dancer.

You can only be as good as your audience. Sometimes you can be as bad as your audience, but you have to remember you can never be better than them.

The secret to a happy marriage is if you can be at peace with someone within four walls, if you are content because the one you love is near to you, either upstairs or downstairs, or in the same room, and you feel that warmth that you don’t find very often, then that is what love is all about.

I hate Mondays – I hate that feeling you’ve got to get yourself up.

Although I’m predominantly known for game-shows, I do prefer to be known as a performer.

That Mick Jagger, I feel sorry for him. After all these years he still can’t get no satisfaction.

No one – apart from my agent, perhaps – should leave one of my shows in tears.

Just doing any kind of work – even an interview for breakfast television – makes me feel happy.

My holidays are very important. Mind you, I take a very long one every year.

I’m not even really a joke-teller. I can do ad-lib and banter, but I don’t do jokes.