Quotes

(when asked whom he'd based his infamous Frank Burns character on) "Every idiot I've ever known."

[on contracting cancer]: "I was scared. It wasn't like drinking. You could give up the bottle. You can't give up the big C."

[about Frank Burns] Some people have said 'Why didn't the role progress? Why didn't he become more understanding, more humane, more compassionate, more sensitive?' I said 'What did you want him to be, Alan Alda?'

[about playing Frank Burns] On the one side he was just kind of silly and stupid and on the other side you have the danger of being very repulsive and ugly so you must balance that so that it is believable enough to serve the comedy.