Dennis Farina

I love England and the historical aspect of it.

My mother and sisters cooked Italian food, and I never heard of half of the dishes you see in these Italian restaurants. I just go in and order spaghetti.

What you do as a policeman might be the right thing to do, but it's not entertaining. I left that behind me.

You can't act for the editing. You have to leave that to him. So you just go in and do the scene the way you think is right or whatever you're directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.

My best year was probably 1948, and after that, it's been downhill for me.

I'm old enough to never say never. I never had a grand plan with what I was going to do. There are some movies that I would like to be involved with, but I'm trying to be a working actor.

I have no message or answers to social questions.

When I first got into acting, I never had any long-term goals, never had any plan. I just thought it would be a good way to make some extra money.

In the kind of roles I do, you can do them and walk away from it and have a really nice time.

I learned a long time ago: You're in the entertainment business. You're not in the reality business. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

My friends are still the guys I met 40 or 50 years ago.

I didn't fall for a lot of that stardom stuff.

When I first started out acting, I didn't have anything to lose. I had another career. If I fell on my face, I could say, 'I'll see ya,' and go back to working.

I know people who go back and check themselves, but it drives me crazy. Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that's just not the case.

Car chases usually don't involve major criminals - they're usually guys afraid of getting another traffic ticket.

I wanted to do Buddy Faro as a small budget movie. They said no. So I wanted to do it as a series of recurring TV movies, and they said no. So I agreed to do it as a series.

I've been involved in some movies that I really thought were going to take off that didn't. And then I've thought, 'This movie's not going anywhere,' and it worked. The same thing with television shows.

I'm set in my own ways. I like to do the things I want to do when I want to do them.

I even played a part in 'Miami Vice.'

If I'm characterized as a character actor, that's fine with me. Whatever they want to call me is fine.

Vince or Brad or Benicio would say, Maybe we should try this, and Guy was open to changes.

I have - and you gotta believe this - hardly ever met anybody in Hollywood who's not nice. There are some people I don't like, but everybody has been very nice.

It was a great time, and I liked the guys. I liked getting up every morning and being a cop.

I think first impressions are important when you pick up a script.

My parents, I don't know about 'strict,' but I would say they were fair and judicious, you know?

You can't act for the editing. You just go in and do the scene the way you think is right.

I don't need to see the old school to remember it and the teachers there. They changed the way that I've always looked at life and learning.

The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun.

This generation of filmmakers is very good. They're seasoned, for some reason.

I had seen 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and I thought that was a different kind of film than I'd seen before, with that kind of editing and slick camera movements.

As far as carrying the American banner, you just do what's right for the kids.

I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.

Acting is a work in progress for me. I just try to keep my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open, especially with the people I've worked with.

There's not too many offers that come my way about being in a musical.

I like being in the '60s.

I never jumped into anything, and I never liked being cajoled into anything. I've pretty much always done things because I wanted to do them.

I loved 'Buddy Faro.' I loved the whole idea.

Change never bothers me, not really.

When I was younger, I watched all the detective shows.

I've tried writing. Two days later I'd go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?

I realize that no one is going to come to me and ask me to be Julius Caesar or a romantic lead, but I think I'm a certain type of guy who looks a certain way, and that's just the reality of things.

There's a whole catalogue of actors that never went to acting school.

The cast was huge, but I never saw anybody.

You really have to act on the force, too. You're involved in a hundred things a day, and you have to react in a hundred different ways, depending on what's going on. And you learn that as you go through your career, how you handle certain situations, interrogations, how you carry yourself. There's a kind of acting to it.

You can change a person's life in an instant; put him in a movie, and you start thinking differently, you want to be in another movie. It's like an addiction almost.

I don't know if I have a technique. I'm just trying to remember the words.

I'd love to do a Western. A real Western like John Ford used to do. There's not too many of them made, so I don't know if I'll ever get to do that. They're awfully hard movies to make.

When I was a kid going to the movies, we'd go because Bogart was in the movie, or Cagney, or John Wayne. We didn't know what the story was about or anything.

The most credible police shows I've ever seen were 'Barney Miller' on TV and 'The French Connection' movie. They showed the tedious side of police work.

Am I a good actor? I don't think about it. But I'm working on it.

Do whatever you're directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.

This is my first experience working in a foreign movie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much the same all over; you still have to wait in the trailer.

Most cop movies and TV shows are fantasies.

I'm very lucky. I'm the most fortunate guy that I know.

One of the funny things in life to me is a guy who takes himself very seriously.

I wasn't so sure about signing up for 'Law & Order.' I liked the show, but another TV series? I'll tell you, though, it's been great, and I had no idea how popular the show was.

When they released Sidewalks of New York, there were some shots with the towers they were going to take out, and Ed told them no. I don't think they can deny the towers were a part of New York.

I have a home in Arizona. I go a couple months a year, but basically Chicago is my home.

I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.

I just think 'Law & Order' is the gold standard. History is going to show that it's probably one of the best series of shows that has been on television.

Chicago's always a friendly place to me.

I was a policeman for 18 years.

Sometimes you can take those dramatic roles and maybe interject a little humor into them, and I think the reverse also works.

I really don't think there's such a thing as an ex-policeman.

I'm just a character actor.

I think there is something very nice about going to work to try to make people laugh.

For some reason or another, 'Richard Diamond, Private Eye,' still sticks out in my mind. I don't think I particularly liked that show, but for some reason, he sticks in my mind.

I don't like to be talked into anything. I don't want to be cajoled.

I think my high-school acting career lasted a day.

We know television should educate and inform, and I believe it should entertain.

I would love, one day before this is all over, to do a Western. That, and to play a priest.

If you did something, and it wasn't right, you definitely found out about it. And they were pretty smart people, both my parents, so you didn't get too much by them.

I've taken up golf... or golf has taken me up.

This face is nothing to brag about. I don't know what it is that these people see in my face.

Usually you're in movies with a lot of dissolves and things, but this was kind of quick, more jarring than usual. I thought it would be fun to be in a movie that's unconventional. Then I met Guy and I liked him. I think he's a good man.

I try to bring my own style to a role, but I can't change how people think of me.

I've worked on what I think are good things.

Sometimes I do pinch myself about the life I've had.

Rooting for the Cubs is not easy, but the best things in life never are.