John Ratzenberger Quotes

I have no interest in a guy who doesn't know the right end of a screwdriver.

The decline of practical skills, some of them very day-to-day, among a generation of British men is very worrying. They can't put up a shelf, wire a plug, countersink a screw, iron a shirt. They believe it's endearing and cute to be useless, whereas I think it's boring, and everyone's getting sick of it.

When I was four or five years old, my grandfather showed me how to build things, paint, saw. Through years of fixing bikes, repairing lawn mowers, I learned how things work.

I can change a light fixture, and I can do certain things. But I'm really bad in terms of construction. I can't do any of it on my own.

I think that people don't know how to do anything anymore. My father was a janitor. He could take a car apart and put it back together. He could build a house in the back yard. Today, if you ask people what they know, they say, 'I know how to hire someone.'

My parents taught me many of the things that people need in life to feel confident: practical things, such as managing finances, mucking out the goat barn, cleaning a house, doing repairs, mending a broken roof or a toilet.

I'd rather be a guy that can build a house or fix a car than be able to walk like a ballet dancer.

I started to learn some common sense. Even just sort of day-to-day things. I started to cook a little bit more and try to learn to fix things around the house. If something breaks down, rather than call a guy, there's got to be more I can do.

DIY skills are hot. The ability to put up a shelf and hang a picture is always good and being able to cook. Cooking's really hot.

I've always been interested in mechanical things. I think I must have been heavily influenced by my father, who is also very good with his hands. He liked to build things. I always loved to watch him do it, and I loved to build things on my own.

I've always said that you were too smart to have a profession. Smart people are hopeless in the face of anything actual. They are terrible cooks. They cannot dress themselves. They are children who need guidance and protecting.

I like a man who can build things. Whittle me something out of wood and I'm sold.

One of my first questions when I interview prospective employees is, 'Do you know how big a sheet of plywood is?' Most people don't, and say they are different sizes, but it's 4' x 8'. Anyway, working with your hands is a very American thing that we kinda lost here, but it's an important skill to have.

My father was very much a handy person round the house, and I learnt a lot of carpentry from him.

The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.

My talents do not lie in DIY.

I really feel like knife skills - not just in the kitchen, but in life - are really critical.

I won't date a guy who doesn't own a toolbox. I'm not saying you need to be able to knock down a wall or build a house or anything like that. But I've been out with a couple of guys who didn't own toolboxes, and they couldn't even change a light bulb.

I was relatively technically adept. I can edit and wire up a light.

I grew up around hardware. I could sell you all the plumbing and electricity you want.

The way I grew up, everyone knew how to cook, sew... carpentry.

As a kid, I had my head under the hood of a car, either an old Ford or a Chevrolet, just learning about it so if anything happened, I could repair it.

When I was in school, shop class was where the kids that weren't good in anything to do with books went.

I try to work on houses not cars. If I was as good at working on cars as I was on houses maybe I would. But I'm not.

I can build a house with my bare hands. In my late teens I was in a band with my friend Henrik, and his builder father thought we needed something to fall back on, so he taught us carpentry and bricklaying and we built a house over two years.