Daily Inspiration Quote by Dick Van Patten

There’s a sly brag hiding inside a shrug. Dick Van Patten’s line lands because it performs the exact kind of likable self-effacement that made him a durable presence in American entertainment: not a tortured “artist,” not a celebrity-striver, but a working actor who kept showing up wherever the industry had room.

The specific intent is simple: to frame longevity as its own kind of accomplishment. Most actors sell you a myth of destiny; Van Patten sells you a résumé. “More jobs” isn’t about glamour, it’s about survival - the unromantic grind of auditions, guest spots, voice work, commercials, theater, pilots that never aired. It flips the usual hierarchy: the star measures success in fame, the professional measures it in employment.

The subtext is almost labor-politics in miniature. Acting, he implies, is less a calling than a trade, and the trade has always been precarious. That makes the claim quietly defiant: I stayed booked. In an industry that discards people the second they’re not “hot,” being consistently hireable is a flex.

Context matters, too. Van Patten came up in an era when performers ping-ponged across stage, radio, early TV, and film, then lived through the fragmentation of the business into endless niches. His most famous role (“Eight Is Enough”) didn’t lock him into prestige; it branded him as dependable, which is often code for “not taken seriously.” He’s reclaiming that label. The joke is that the punchline is also the truth: the closest thing Hollywood has to immortality is steady work.