Top 40 Terry Wogan Quotes

I say to my children, the reason that marriage – and having children – is so important is that it stops you thinking about yourself. The way to happiness is to give yourself to others and to think of others before you think of yourself.

Go out and face the world secure in the knowledge that everybody else thinks they are better looking than they are as well.

Treasure is the kind of thing you dig up… or bury! And when people say, ‘Oh, he’s an icon,’ well, an icon is a very old painting hanging in a Russian church! If you want to say something, say something nice about me. Don’t call me a national treasure.

I’ve no patience for people who say they never watch television. It’s a great way to keep in touch with popular culture, and it’s important that children can relate to what their schoolmates are watching.

I’d walked away from ‘Come Dancing‘ and gave ‘Blankety Blank‘ the elbow when I felt the public had had enough. But I didn’t follow my instinct to escape from ‘Wogan,’ and was persuaded to continue for another two years. I kind of regret that.

I’ve never wanted to drive a car fast for the sake of it. I mean, I like nice cars. I’ve got the Bentley, I’ve had a Lotus, I’ve had a Rolls-Royce and a few Jaguars, including an E-type. But I’m not somebody for driving tremendously fast.

A couple of years before he died, I kissed my father goodbye. He said, ‘Son, you haven‘t kissed me since you were a little boy.’ It went straight to my heart, and I kissed him whenever I saw him after that, and my sons and I always kiss whenever we meet.

Nobody ever texts me, because they know what I’m like. I’m a constant frustration to my children because I never switch my mobile phone on. I only use it when I need to make a call or when I’m stuck somewhere or lost, then I switch it off again. I’ve never texted anyone in my life, and I’m not sure I even know how to.

My parents spent an awful lot of money sending me to the best possible schools, and I came out of my exams and thought, ‘I don’t really want to do a degree.’ I did philosophy with the Jesuits for about a year, and then I joined a bank. While I was there, I saw an ad in an Irish paper for radio announcers.

I have a happy temperament: a bit like ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.’

A talk show is about having a look at a famous face, a bit of stand-up comedy, knockabout stuff – an interview is what Barbara Walters or Connie Chung does in the States, in-depth, done properly.

Age, they say, is only important if you’re cheese. or a wine. They also say, if you are stuck behind one on a golf course, that a tree is 90 per cent air. How come, then, that you invariably send your ball crashing into the remaining 10 per cent?

My father was always slightly bemused by my success. Although he knew that I had reasonable intelligence, he always thought that I was a little bit lazy.

I’m so proud to do it – there’s nothing else I do that compares to ‘Children in Need.’

The BBC is the greatest broadcaster in the world. It’s the standard that everyone measures themselves against. If we lose the BBC, it won‘t be quite as bad as losing the royal family, but an integral part of this country will have gone. But then, I’m an old guy.

Time flies like an arrow – but fruit flies like a banana.

I have great fun with the Togs – Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals. They’re a group that formed around me over the years of my radio shows. They are loyal to me and I’m loyal to them, so I’ve been to their conventions – Leicester University gives us their campus.

‘Senior Citizen‘ and ‘Silver Surfer’ are the new euphemisms. Unless you’re a female presenter on TV, in which case you’re ready for the knacker’s yard at 35.

I’m asked to do ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ on a regular basis, but I always say no.

I’ve always been the kind of person who leaves parties early to catch the last bus home.

Places like India can give you a real culture shock because of the poverty you see, and it brings you up sharply.

We’ll watch ‘Britain‘s Got Talent,’ ‘X Factor,’ ‘Come Dine with Me’ and ‘Masterchef.’ But we don’t watch ‘Big Brother,’ which is rubbish. I certainly won’t be tuning into the new series of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ either. I think it’s awful, exploitative and vulgar.

I try to swim for 30 minutes and walk for 30 minutes, because if I don’t, my finely honed body will slip into its old ways.

Oh, I’m a great believer in the power of the pause. Radio is a bit brasher now. My style was slower. I just used to go in, open the microphone and say the first thing that came into my head.

I speak some French, Spanish, a little German and Gaelic.

You have to be aware of your own shortcomings. The main thing I try not to do is lose my temper. Doing live interviews on television, you learn not to say the first thing that comes into your head.

I’ve seen my fair share of drama over the years of Children In Need. I had a close brush with mortality in 2009 when a chain collapsed from the studio rigging. I was in mid-spout to camera when I heard an enormous crash behind me – a ton of steel had come hurtling down and smashed to the ground a few feet away.

I’m not big on the pasty because they say the pastry in the pasty can bring on indigestion.

What used to be called ‘good manners‘ is now regarded as mere affectation. Open a door for a young woman, and she‘s likely to call security.

My life has been a happy accident. Anybody who succeeds in anything should count their lucky stars, because that’s the biggest element. It’s not hard work; it’s not necessarily talent.

I spent my entire Irish Catholic youth in a constant state of guilt over imaginary sins. I learned that nothing is a sin as long as you don’t take pleasure from it.

I think if they wanted to get me to leave ‘Children in Need,’ they’d have to drag me off screaming. It’s one thing that’s so close to my heart, and I feel passionately about it. I gave up my radio show, with regret, but knowing I’d done it for a long time, the same with Eurovision. But ‘Children in Need’ is different.

All reality TV shows are a triumph of voyeurism. They choose contestants who are ill-suited and slightly freakish.

I don’t do a lot when I’m in Gascony. I swim and play the odd game of golf, but mainly I sit around. We’re set an hour-and-a-half from the Pyrenees and an hour-and-a-half from the Bay of Biscay, so we get plenty of storms. But we’re surrounded by vines and sunflowers – it’s lovely.

There’s nothing to be said for being famous. It’s a pain. You can’t be rude to people – it’s inexcusable not to be nice. Anyway, it’s not in my nature. I was trained to be nice.

I don’t like seeing myself on screen. Whenever I see or hear myself, I think, ‘What is that eejet doing now?’ I’m in the wrong business. I don’t like the limelight.

Nobody really knows what they look like. The mirror shows you only what you want to see.

BBC TV gets hold of an idea and beats it to death until we’re all heartily sick of it. They buy people without thinking what they’re going to do with them. It’s the wrong way around. What they should be doing is employing really good ideas people to come up with good ideas.

I’m on the university board in Limerick, so I visit the city often.

I was born an optimist, as I always say. If I wake up in the morning with a pain in my chest, I’ll always assume it’s indigestion. It will probably be the end of me! But it’s true – that’s the kind of person I am.