Tony Danza Quotes

Hold back the tide. Keep your kids innocent as long as possible.

What happened is, when I was doing 'Taxi,' the last year, we did this thing where we had on top hats and tails, and we pretended to tap-dance. And I said to myself, 'You know, I always wanted to know how to do this.' So I got myself a teacher, and I started studying, and I got hooked.

The part in 'Taxi' was originally written for a guy named Phil Ryan, so they made it Phil Banta, and then they made it Tony Banta, which sounded a lot better anyway.

This culture is sort of antithetical in everything it says to the kids. I don't want to pick on 'Jersey Shore,' but it's pretty clear. I would tell the kids good behavior and hard work will pay off, and then they go home and watch TV and go, 'Oh, that's not true.'

One of the best indicators of student achievement is the academic success of the mother in the home.

I am looking forward to getting to do things I have never done before.

No one ever seems to question why the burden is all on the teacher to do the engaging, when we ask so little of the students, or for that matter, their parents." Her vehemence startled me. "I never thought of it that way," I told her. "No," she said, not unkindly. "But I promise, you will.

I did Vibe, and I felt old and paternal. I've got ties older than people in that audience. I had a talk with myself. I said, You've got to deal with this better.

There was a time when watching a cartoon was a nurturing experience. You would watch a Warner Bros. cartoon, and at the end of it you could probably win 'Jeopardy.'

Look, when I got in trouble in school I got in trouble at home. Now when kids get in trouble at school, the teacher gets in trouble. So the families are important.

The joke I wanted to put into one of the promos for this new season, was to have a guy come up to me and say, Hey! Tony! I love your show, I've watched you every night since you started! And then I'd say, Ah! You're the one!

And whether or not the educators who are trying to raise up America's students can actually set and meet higher academic standards, our cultural values make their job next to impossible. It's so much easier for pundits and politicians to point out figures and blame the people who are in the trenches every day than it is to get in there with them, or even to find out what actually goes on in those trenches. It's so much easier for parents to blame teachers when their kids get in trouble than to do the heavy lifting required at home to keep kids on track. And it's so much easier for us as a nation to cross our fingers and hope that we'll "get lucky" with the innovative "solutions" being tested on America's schools today than it is for us to roll up our sleeves and invest our own time, talent, and money in the schools that are even now
with or without us
shaping our nation's future.

Poverty can't be an excuse for bad teaching, but teaching can't be the only thing we do to combat poverty.

We did 112 shows and had 112 parties.

Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there's got to be more to it than that!

We are cutting things kids like-music, art, and gym classes; stuff that kept me in school. This country can't survive without you kids. It's all about you kids.

Teaching is different today. Teachers don't just stand at the board and lecture while the kids take notes. What we're ultimately teaching them is to teach themselves.

I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. But I had gotten in a lot of fights 'cause in the neighborhood I grew up in, that wasn't equated with bad behavior almost. I mean, we'd fought like it was another game. 'You wanna play stick ball today?' 'Nah, let's go fight.'

Boxing changed my life. It's like a drug; you can't believe how great it is! Let me tell you something, you hit somebody on the chin, the guy goes down, the crowd roars ... Wow! You really feel something!

Teaching high school in an inner-city school is not an easy task. Every teacher is responsible for 150 teenagers. The amount of work is just mind-boggling. Remember, you're not just doing a job. You have these kids' futures in your hand; you have to inspire them.

I love to cook and I know a lot of people watching love those segments, but so often they feel rushed to me. If we give 'em a bit more time to breathe, people will get more out of them.

I'm a union guy; I've always been. I've been in SAG 35 years; my father was a garbage man, a sanitation man, for the city, a union guy.

Sometimes it's like watching a train wreck. You're uncomfortable, but you just can't help yourself. Some of those so-called bad interviews actually turned into compelling television.

I am a singer and dancer, and I've been perfecting it for a lot of years.

I got this call that they wanted me to join this cast. They called it a family show, and it thought that it would be similar to all family shows. I wasn't sure about this until I watched some tapes, and was amazed.

I'm an American songbook guy, though I've got eclectic tastes. I really love the American songbook. I've taken up the ukulele, and so you can play 'Five Foot Two' and Hawaiian music, but you can also do some of the great tunes, like 'You Go to My Head,' 'I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry,' 'Taking a Chance on Love.'

I want to do a book called 'Shopping and Cooking for One with Tony Danza,' where I will show you how to shop. And, by the way, it should be a movement, because there are many single people in this world. You go to the supermarket, and you need celery, you gotta buy a whole head of celery. It's very difficult for single people.

The prospect of beginning a third- act career scared me almost as much as it attracted me.

In an earthquake, I shouldn't run out of the house - I should run into it.

What's interesting is that I get messages from people who think I'm gone. I have messages like "Tony, we're so sorry. We loved you!"

Every job has its pros and cons. The NFL just has more of both.

Don't try too hard to be young. Be who you are.