Arnaz Quotes

#1. I didn't know anything about acting, much less about acting in a comedy.

Desi Arnaz

#2. I learned a lot from Xavier Cugat.

Desi Arnaz

#3. The straw hat is the typical hat Cubans use. It's cool and keeps the sun away from your face.

Desi Arnaz

#4. Since I was very young I have always worked hard at whatever I have had to do.

Desi Arnaz

#5. The custom of my grandfather's day is still going strong in Latin America. American girls do not seem to understand it.

Desi Arnaz

#6. In 1934 there were very few Cubans in Miami.

Desi Arnaz

#7. I liked all of my science classes from biology to chemistry. I thought dissecting was one of the most interesting parts of it.

Arnaz Battle

#8. It's really amazing that two people from such different backgrounds and geographical origins ever got together. That was perhaps part of the attraction.

Desi Arnaz

#9. Al Jolson was one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived.

Desi Arnaz

#10. The Spanish and Cuban people have the same kind of wakes the Irish do. They go on for two or three days and drink a lot of booze and eat a lot of food.

Desi Arnaz

#11. Lucy is such a perfectionist.

Desi Arnaz

#12. Lucy and I would love furiously and fight furiously.

Desi Arnaz

#13. In middle school, I had this one teacher who would kick me out all the time. He just didn't like me. I could ask a person next to me to borrow a pencil, and he'd kick me out of class. Besides that, I've never been in trouble.

Arnaz Battle

#14. The thing I remember about New York was how little I felt. I arrived with one small bag and $15.

Desi Arnaz

#15. It was easy for viewers to identify with our show. The characters were believable.

Desi Arnaz

#16. I learned a lot in those first years in Miami, while struggling just for survival, by observing my father's fortitude.

Desi Arnaz

#17. I received my Greetings from Uncle Sam in May 1943. I applied for the Air Force.

Desi Arnaz

#18. An audience is so important. I would never have had the guts to dub in that big a laugh.

Desi Arnaz

#19. I don't think anyone can tell you what it is that makes you a star.

Desi Arnaz

#20. I went to high school with Al Capone.

Desi Arnaz

#21. An actor who is good at comedy can also be very good at drama, but not necessarily vice versa.

Desi Arnaz

#22. Drinking intensifies all your pressures and your needs.

Desi Arnaz

#23. When we weren't scratching each other's eyes out, we were making each other laugh harder than anyone else could.

Lucie Arnaz

#24. Joe McCarthy and his Senate hearings were like witch-hunts.

Desi Arnaz

#25. One of my biggest problems with comedy was that I did not understand some of the jokes.

Desi Arnaz

#26. I could have stayed home and been kept by my wife.

Desi Arnaz

#27. Real intellectuals like to escape once in a while from their world of intellect.

Desi Arnaz

#28. I recently watched that Lucie Arnaz-produced documentary [Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie, 1992] about her parents [Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz], and I saw so much of my own childhood there.

Ben Stiller

#29. About once every six months someone notifies me that Lucy and Desi Arnaz are separating.

Hedda Hopper

#30. No one could ever argue with me about people in show business being kind of nice.

Desi Arnaz

#31. Motion-picture studio floors used to be all wooden and not smooth at all. This was difficult when moving a camera around on a dolly.

Desi Arnaz

#32. Nobody bats 500. We all make mistakes.

Desi Arnaz

#33. American people have the ability to laugh at themselves. It is one of the things that makes this country the great country that it is.

Desi Arnaz

#34. I've never been in trouble. I've never had detention or anything. I wasn't a teacher's pet though either.

Arnaz Battle

#35. At times we were criticized for doing too much slapstick. I don't believe in mild comedy, and neither does Lucy.

Desi Arnaz

#36. Good things do not come easy. The road is lined with pitfalls.

Desi Arnaz

#37. Failure is the most terrible thing in our business. When we fail, the whole world knows about it.

Desi Arnaz

#38. Everyone seemed to be doing well except me and my career. And my accent was no helping me any.

Desi Arnaz

#39. I had started calling her Lucy shortly after we met; I didn't like the name Lucille. That's how our television show was called I Love Lucy, not Lucille.

Desi Arnaz

#40. My Latin temper blows up pretty fast, but it goes down just as fast. Maybe that's why you seldom hear of ulcers in Latin America.

Desi Arnaz

#41. When we got married, nobody gave it more than two weeks. There were bets all over the country, with astronomical odds against us.

Desi Arnaz

#42. Making a television show is not like making Coca-Cola or Bacardi rum. The human element in our business prevents us from finding a successful formula every time.

Desi Arnaz

#43. When I get in the sun I get very tanned. You can't tell me from the native fishermen in Hawaii or Mexico.

Desi Arnaz

#44. If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.

Desi Arnaz

#45. I was the only male of the Arnaz family in my generation.

Desi Arnaz

#46. I was never in an episode of I LOVE LUCY!

Lucie Arnaz

#47. Anything that gets you to release the stress in your life and really laugh is worthwhile. It can heal the planet. It truly can, and it actually has.

Lucie Arnaz

#48. The success of I Love Lucy is something that happens only once in a lifetime, if you are fortunate enough to have it happen at all.

Desi Arnaz

#49. Mother came to New York to keep house for me.

Desi Arnaz

#50. The way the Army does things is sometimes a little strange.

Desi Arnaz

#51. I was an only child, but I did have a hell of a lot of cousins.

Desi Arnaz

#52. A single prop that does not look real to an audience can louse you up. The same is true of the smallest flaw in setting up the motivation in a story line.

Desi Arnaz