Best quotes by Dick Clark

Dick Clark

Dick Clark

American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor

Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting American Bandstand from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid game show from 1973 to 1988 and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, which transmitted Times Square's New Year's Eve celebrations.

As host of American Bandstand, Clark introduced rock & roll to many Americans. The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Iggy Pop, Prince, Talking Heads, and Madonna. Episodes he hosted were among the first in which black people and white people performed on the same stage, and they were among the first in which the live studio audience sat down together without racial segregation. Singer Paul Anka claimed that Bandstand was responsible for creating a "youth culture." Due to his perennially youthful appearance and his largely teenaged audience of American Bandstand, Clark was often referred to as "America's oldest teenager" or "the world's oldest teenager."

In his off-stage roles, Clark served as chief executive officer of Dick Clark Productions company (though he sold off his financial interest in his later years). He also founded the American Bandstand Diner, a restaurant chain modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe.In 1973, he created and produced the annual American Music Awards show, similar to the Grammy Awards.

All quotes by Dick Clark:

Music is the soundtrack of your life.

If you want to stay young-looking, pick your parents very carefully.

Success is finding something you love to do, getting paid to do it and finding someone to share it with.

The music of your youth stays with you throughout your life.

Age ain't got nothing to do with how old you are.

If you fall down, get up and walk again. If you can't walk, crawl. If that idea fails, have another one It doesn't happen by accident. It takes a lot of hard work.

I don't set trends. I just find out what they are and exploit them.

The problem is when you try to impose today's standards on people living back then. It's the politically correct thing to do, but it was a different era, a different country then.

It's rare when an artist's talent can touch an entire generation of people. It's even rarer when that same influence affects several generations. Elvis made an imprint on the world of pop music unequaled by any other single performer.

Last year I had a stroke. It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk all over again. It was a long hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there.

I'm a survivor in a business that constantly rejects you.

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?

Jet lag is for amateurs.

The faultless formulas of television-the ones that last-are simple.

I don't make culture. I sell it.