"I have to go off by myself to keep a balance. I can’t always be, "Bill the actor’. I must stop and gain perspective so as not to confuse my role and my person."

"…You must take the time to know yourself and decide what you have to offer. Then you must offer that so that you are accepted as yourself—just yourself, with no illusions.

"You can take time by yourself even in a group. I have a passion against wasting time, and that’s just what you’re doing if you don’t take time in a group to get to listen to others. Everybody has a quality worth finding if you only make the effort to discover it.

"I might do most of the talking but I’m looking for the other person’s reaction. So, I work on instinct and start probing with remarks and I have an indication of what the person is like before they even open their mouth."

"…I admire someone says, ‘I tried and failed’, rather than not having the guts to try.

"A person has got to have the right to be wrong, to make mistakes. You must stick your neck out and try. There is no need to apologize if you try and fail. On the contrary, you can look anyone right in the eye." 

……………….…

US Magazine…..July 11, 1978 (added 5/3/03)

 "I love architecture. I could look at blueprints for hours. I love structure and form. It’s the same thing I enjoy in being a director. I also have a deep love for classical music, especially Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Once again, it’s the structure and form." 

"(Work) allowed me to put my energies some place and focus them some place and relieve myself for awhile of confronting the traumatic circumstances that were occurring in my life. So work has always been a friend to me."

"The Incredible Success of Bill Bixby" (Interview with Yvonne--Wyatt Rees circa 1980) source: Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles

"I’m a loner as a person, but then I always was, even as a child."

"As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve been to a party for eight or nine years unless it’s been for show business purposes, and then I’m there as an actor which is fine. But chit-chat is not my game and I don’t confuse my working life with my real life. I never try to let the two mix."

"When I was growing up in San Francisco, it was a city to emphasise taste rather than money. That’s one of the traditions of San Francisco. If you live in the city—The City, as they say—that’s one of the privileges of life and with it there’s a certain dignity. There’s a sense of gracious living and hopefully decent behaviour; and I come from that kind of background.

"The idea of having pride, the idea of manners, I think is very, very important. There’s just too little of it in the world and I think there are certain dignities in life to which we should all aspire."

"I’m willing to make mistakes and I’m also willing to face them myself. I prefer that than having to answer for someone else. I’ve made a lot myself, but hopefully I won’t repeat them. If you go through life and you haven’t made any, it simply means you haven’t taken any chances, and your obligation to life is to live it and to go forward because life in a sense is a series of successes and failures.

"It’s the same with friendships. Friends are very important to me and it’s very difficult to make a friendship. I don’t take it lightly and I have great respect for it."

Honesty is obviously very important to Bill; another thing of equal importance to him is time.

"Definitely. It’s the only valuable commodity there is. Money doesn’t mean anything because the value of it can be reduced instantly and it’s gone. Possessions don’t mean anything because they can be stolen. But time—there’s nothing else of such value that I can see and there’s never enough of it."

 (added 5/15/09)

/My Favorite Martian/ /The Courtship of Eddie’s Father//PBS’s "Steambath"//The Magician/

/The Incredible Hulk//Goodnight Beantown//On Acting//On Directing// /On Television//On Public Recognition/

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