Peter Billingsley

“A lot of people don't like child actors.”

“I only get involved with projects as a producer if I feel creatively inspired.”

“Guys like Alvin Adams, Sweet D Walter Davis, Larry Nance, and Kyle Macy became my basketball heroes.”

“I guess I've always had a similar-looking face.”

“You have to pace yourself. As a producer, you start with a concept and shepherd it through the script to the delivery of the film. It's a very long journey for an hour and 40 minutes of movie.”

“I had brothers and sisters and did chores and had to pick up the dog crap in the yard and mow the lawn and do all the normal things that kids have to do.”

“'A Christmas Story' has become such a special part of the holiday season for so many families.”

“I think if you turn down the volume on the good comedy, you should not even know if it's a comedy or not. It should look like a drama.”

“I'm a big watcher of sports, consumer of sports content, so I love documentaries; I love the format.”

“'A Christmas Story' has always meant a lot to me personally.”

“It's a difficult world for lots of child actors, and it's difficult to be a teenager under any circumstances. Add to that notoriety and fame, and things can go really wrong. But I had a terrific family and grew up very normal in Phoenix.”

“It is important to me that I was not raised in Los Angeles.”

“When I first heard 'A Christmas Story, the musical,' I thought, Oh, that could be really good. It just felt like it fit. Some films lend themselves well to other formats, some don't, but there are so many fantasy sequences in the film, and Ralphie's such a dreamer as a character, I thought they could really lend themselves to being set pieces.”

“People will still recognize me and say, 'You'll shoot your eye out!'”

“When you're involved in those big-budget movies, there's a lot of hype: 'Oh this is gonna be a big hit!' And 'A Christmas Story' wasn't. It came and went and was a big disappointment at the box office.”

“When you're a child actor and play the precocious kid, the temptation is to wear leather pants or a cutoff shirt to redefine yourself. But I never felt the need to randomly reshuffle the deck and say, 'Don't call me Peter. Call me Pete.' I just figured you evolve naturally, and you'll be recognized for what your successes are.”

“I've been really lucky in that I've been able to work so much, and pretty much everything I've done has been really great fun.”

“You're going to spend a long time with the stuff you work on; you might as well like it.”

“An actor can come in with a specific energy and get it on film over several days or weeks, but as the producer, I'm responsible for the overall trajectory of the project.”

“When the St. Louis Cardinals arrived in Arizona as the Phoenix Cardinals, I became a fan and still am today.”