“I was under contract with Walt Disney at the time. I was co-starring in my second season of a show called, Texas John Slaughter. The Andy Griffith Show hired me to play Thelma Lou. I only worked when they called me.”

Andy was always fun and liked to tease. Don was nothing like Barney. Don was very quiet, which shows what a good actor he was.

I still stay in touch with Elinor Donahue. I’ve known Elinor since she was 14-years-old.

One reason [of Andy Griffith Show popularity] is because of the formula. It had comedy, but it also had tender moments. The other reason is because it was therapeutic. It helped people relax and unwind.

Some months I don’t feel too good and I think maybe I won’t go, but then when I go and get to be there with so many wonderful people it always lifts my spirits and makes me feel better. I wouldn’t stand in line for hours to meet me, but I’m so glad my fans do.

I did appear on other popular TV shows, like Family Affair, My Three Sons, Barnaby Jones and Little House on the Prairie.

Twenty years after the Andy Griffith Show when Andy did Matlock, he hired me for four episodes. I told him I wanted to develop an Aunt Bea type role for Matlock, but he was against it.

I would do an episode in two days and I got paid $500. After all the federal, state and local taxes were taken out and then my agent’s commission I only got $200 some dollars per episode.

I think the show has so many wonderful memories connected to it for lots of people. When fans come to see me at the Andy Griffith Museum they get so emotional. Some of them cry, lots of them hug me and some want a kiss on the cheek.

Don Knotts left [Andy Griffith Show] to pursue a movie career, so once he was gone I left too.

Andy [Griffith] and I spoke on the phone not too long before he died. I told him I loved him and he told me he loved me. He was a wonderful man.

I love to meet people for lunch at my favorite restaurant, the Loaded Goat. It is named after the Andy Griffith Show episode where a goat ate a bunch of dynamite.

Don Knotts won five Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor or Actress in a Series [in Andy Griffith Show] in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1967.

They were all wonderful [on Andy Griffith Show], but I enjoyed Andy and Don and Ron the most. Ron played little Opie so well. He really took acting seriously and worked hard to deliver his lines well.

Whatever you can become will ultimately be destroyed. Only what you already are can’t be taken away.

The Hamas has taken the path of avoiding causing harm to Zionist interests outside of Palestine.

As you peel it back, in the heart of nothing, that is love. You are what you are seeking. Life is a set up so that each of us can actually see in ourselves the truth for ourselves.

As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back, you have not taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means that you stand free of making demands on others and life to make you happy.

What puzzles most of us are the things which have been left in the movies rather than the things which have been taken out.

All the things I thought I was – simple and plain and sometime funny – are very small words.

When you have His joy in your heart, it doesn’t necessarily mean your pain or hurt will be taken away. It means you’ll be able to bear it.

Unless action is taken soon – unless we can display the same vision of that earlier period – we will lose the treasure of California’s open space and environmental beauty.