Quotes By James MacArthur

For years I have played the twenty-something lover.

And after four years, I thoroughly enjoy Hawaii and the success of the show.

I thought even if the show only lasted a year, it would be fun.

Once you're a winner, you can give all sorts of reasons why you're a winner. Of course, you could all those same reasons to explain why a show fails.

I just sold a farm in Missouri, and I own a ski lodge in Colorado with some Honolulu partners.

I give a percentage of the earnings to the Motion Picture Home.

And I had an old-fashioned idea that dividends were a good thing.

If the woman in my life, the one that I felt I loved enough to want to marry, loved my children, I'd know then that her love for me was deeper than I could hope for.

Walt Disney was not a merchant of sadness.

But it's hard to sustain a successful acting career today.

I am happy to have now as Danny finally a more difficult role, in which I can shoot and fight.

The first year we actually did a lot of night shooting and the writers weren't even allowed on location.

It was an hour of sanity with the good guys winning, a situation where the world was right side up.

Some people say Hawaii is spoiled, but I don't think so. It's modern. It's a part of today's world.

My idea of going to hell is going somewhere where there are no books.

Who knows what kind of life I might have had had I not been fortunate enough to have the parents I've had.

Actually, if I could find a woman who was that wonderful; that understanding, well, I'd give her everything in the world that was in my power to give. And, I'd love her more than I ever thought it possible to love any woman.

When the major studios flourished many years ago, an actor was groomed, developed, and worked frequently at his craft. The studios really took care of their actors.

They all went down in droves because just scenes of palm trees and beaches can get pretty boring.

Nobody really knows what makes a hit TV show.

But I found out that bones with flesh are more interesting than bones without.

I got into the acting business very young.

It's sometimes unnerving to think of that, and I wish it were possible for all children in the world to have the good fortune I've had in having a giving and loving family.

My mother insisted that I have a normal upbringing.

Frankly - and believe me, I say this without any pretense - when I see the road I've taken, I have to say that thanks to good luck, because without good luck one can do nothing, I've come out pretty well.

Beating the drums for Hawaii is not hard to do... the place just grows on you.

Six years ago, I completed the premier episode of Hawaii Five-O, and Jack Lord and I immediately realized that we had a good series, that this was a success such as we'd never hoped for!

You know, as I do, actors who, having become worldwide celebrities thanks to a TV series, complain of their lot and declare themselves ready to drop it all.

We were living in a tumultuous time, when the world was upside down. Freeman produced a show that was black and white, the good guys versus the bad guys.

I don't think anyone connected with Five-O believed the show would last as long as it did.