Adam West
I have no patience with dinosaurs.Collection: Patience
Burgess Meredith taught me a lot about wine.
I like to make people laugh and have fun.
Any incarnation of 'Batman' I am delighted to do.
I love to go home and do the chores and read.
To play the leading man in a 'Three Stooges' movie, you've got to think funny. Thank God I think funny.
I've always been able to work. I think it's an actor's obligation to keep working if you can.
I don't paint butter dishes, doilies, or hummingbirds in my garden. It's more raw, I suppose. But it always creates a reaction.
When you wear a mask and create a character, nothing will pigeonhole you faster.
I've played dinner theaters. I'm a working stiff.
I'm like Madonna: I keep reinventing myself.
I get called 'Mayor West' a lot in airports. I've been very fortunate to have a fan base that keeps growing, and the work gets such a warm response and humor from people.
I would hate to be a bitter, aging actor.
When 'Family Guy' came along, it was like a gift, and it expanded my fan base.
I come to Comic-Con in San Diego because this is where those fans are - those to whom I owe the longevity of my career.
I was victimized by the old Hollywood typecasting thing. I had to really fight to get out of it, so I was uncomfortable with it.
Crummy pictures, live appearances, circuses, avant garde theater, dinner theater. I've done it all. I've been shot out of cannons. I know what the people want. I'm out there with the people.
I don't want to be Batman. Let Val Kilmer do it. I just want to be Uncle Batman. I have this whole 'warm relationship' plot in my mind. In the final scenes, the new Batmobile breaks down, the new Batman's stranded on the side of the road. We grab our old Batmobile, pick him up and drive away.
I've hung on for a long time in this business and had some success, and I think it's keeping an open mind and being curious and having a sense of humor about oneself that's important.
I've always shied away from 'Where are they now?' shows, because I've been lucky enough to keep working, and people know where I am.
You've got a guy in a cape and tights running around fighting crime 24-7; this is not normal. But it worked because the kids loved it and the adults laughed with it.
Batman had a certain speech pattern that I established because he was always Sherlock Holmes-ian. He was Basil Rathbone. In other words, he was always musing about something.
If you paint a picture and I paint a picture, we each want to do it our own way. And we'll stand or fall on whatever we did.
I'm not a vindictive kind of guy.
I think it's an actor's job, if you can, to keep working and to keep using that muscle. First of all, you've got to pay the bills, but it also helps you develop.
If you hang around long enough, they think you're good. It's either my tenacity or stupidity - I'm not sure which.
Life is full of ironies and absurdities.
In the late '60s, there were the the three B's: The Beatles, Batman, and Bond.
I like Christian Bale. I've heard he's a big fan of mine, but I certainly reciprocate. I think he's really very good.
Over the years, I've learned that if you can just hang in there and, regardless of what's presented to you, take it as a challenge and try to bring in something fresh, then it works.
Look at 'Batman' - that was theater of the absurd, as is 'Family Guy.'
I am a private person. I don't need a lot of company. And I find it really, really difficult to talk about myself.
Anything that triggers good memories can't be all bad.
I've been able to reinvent myself and to keep an audience going at whatever age. This is terrific. I mean, how many actors get that chance?
If you're a plumber, you plumb. I'm an actor. I act.
I'm a fan of anything that's good, especially when it's conscientiously good.
In a very real sense, I represent pop culture in an iconic way. It's been very good to me, so anything I can do to help the fans to tumble along - it's good.
When you go to the Sistine Chapel with Sophia Loren, it can be quite some time before your thoughts turn to the ceiling.
I'm very lucky. I do voiceovers, 'Family Guy,' on and on, and quite frankly, I'm one of the luckiest actors in the world. I was able to create a character who became iconic.
I have become convinced that everything that is classy doesn't go away.
Isn't it fun to be nuts? Isn't it fun to be crazy?
It's part of my character not to take myself too seriously. That's one of the reasons I've been able to survive.
I've always tried to fit what I do professionally into my family, rather than the other way around.
How many actors have a shot at being a part of something that became a part of pop culture? It's been very rewarding. I'm not getting the 20 million bucks for the new movies, but at least I'm getting warmth and recognition from people wherever I go.
My grandfather and my father had wheat ranches, so we had quite a few trucks around and a lot of mules. Talk about horsepower - we had mule power.
I used to spend hours just sitting in an old wreck of a car with a stickshift; I'd just sit there and shift.
The Batmobile wasn't a stickshift, and it was a challenge to drive, believe me.
I am a simple man, though my wife says I am complicated. I'll trust her on that one.
You have no idea the people I meet when I do these Comic-Cons. When I go sign autographs and say hello to people, I see everything!
One of the most gratifying, rewarding things is when people come up, and they tell you how the show influenced their lives in a very positive way. When I do these things like Comic Con, I get people who are lawyers, judges, plumbers, carpenters, and entire families, and it's mostly for 'Batman.' But now, amazingly, it's also for 'Family Guy.'