I came to Hollywood and nobody knew me. I was on a coupla TV shows.

I never understood a word John Cassavetes said. And I think he did that deliberately.

I'm just looking to get through the day.

I did do my own stunts.

Usually, I get hired because I'm tall.

You talk about what a director, he was smart. He said, Turn the camera on!

The only mountain that I would still like to climb: I'd like to break 85.

I came to Hollywood and nobody knew me. I was on a coupla TV shows.

If your mind is at work, we're in danger of reproducing another cliche. If we can keep our minds out of it and our thoughts out of it, maybe we'll come up with something original.

Before we ever had a script or anything, I was attracted to the idea of playing a character that housed within himself two opposing traits.

Certainly, you envy the guys that have done all kinds of things, a variety of good scripts and good directors. Then again, having worked with Cassavetes has satisfied a big part of that.

Children ran up to me shouting, 'Columbo!' At first, it gave me great pleasure, but later, I said to myself that those children should have had their own heroes instead of admiring a cop from Los Angeles.

Columbo was never comfortable if somebody considered him unique or smart.

Even the first year of 'Columbo,' 'Columbo' was Jesus Christ, No. 1, you know.

God didn't design anyone to be recognized by 2 billion people.

Going to Hartford turned out to be the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.

Hartford had the Mark Twain Masquers, which was fantastic. They had been in business I don't know how many years. They knew how to build sets and sell tickets and put on a play. My day started at night. When I left the office, that's when my day began.

I didn't become an actor until I was an old man of 28 or 29. I declared to the world that I was an actor. Nobody heard me, but I did declare it.

I do figure every angle of a guy I'm acting - but not consciously 'til afterward.

I got a regret: That I started acting so late. I was 27, and guys who start at 18 or so, there's this kinda continuity of friendships they form in the profession by startin' young, I've never had that.

I had no idea when I graduated from high school and then from graduate school what I wanted to do with my life. I had no idea that I was ever going to be an actor.

I had two ambitions: One was to be in The Actors Studio, and the other was to walk into a bar where actors hung out, and everyone would know that I was a professional actor and I would be accepted.

I hate to talk about typecasting, because being typecast as Columbo ain't cancer.

I just keep working.

I like stories that grow, that have unpredictable layers. As opposed to Hollywood movies that start out with a lot of shock and noise and peter out into an unconvincing cliche.

I lose things. I am preoccupied. I am misty. Eyeglasses? I go through eyeglasses like tissue.

I love Chicago. It's one of the great cities. I'm crazy about the town. It reminds me of New York when it was at its best, the New York that used to be and is no more. I love the architecture, the old stuff and the new stuff.

I never turned a part down when they offered me money.

I remember being amazed that actors had a union. I thought only coal miners had unions, or guys that worked in automobile plants. That's an indication of how naive I was.

I still get fan mail for Columbo.

I think people identify with Columbo because he is an average man.

I thought actors were artists and that artists had to be European.

I used to dread somebody saying, 'Whatsa matter with your eye?'

I used to have this idea that you can spend years in the movies and TV and then, at the drop of a hat, say 'Oh, I'll go back and do the theater.'

I used to take girls out on a date to Night Court. And I'll tell you, most girls, they got a kick out of going to Night Court. 'Cause you get a lot of laughs... and it's cheap.

I wanted to become an actor, but I didn't want to admit it.

I was a street-guy villain. I was a street-corner villain. I was an illiterate villain. All rough edges.

I watch practically no TV - ah, what the hell do I watch? Oh, I was for a long time addicted to CNN.

I'm makin' a lotta dough, everyone knows who you are, and who the hell cares whether you're typecast or not? Also, there's something wrong with complaining about being typecast in something you really enjoy doing.

I'm not an ace at small talk.

I'm old fashioned. I really think you should know how to draw before you start painting. I use charcoal and graphite; I put a skylight in. In my house, I turned the garage into an art studio. So I'm awash in art studios.

I'm secretly very stuffy.

I've been asked a few thousand times how much of Columbo is Falk and vice versa.

I've never worried about the grand concepts.

I've worked with some terrific actors. The list of guys that came on the 'Columbo' show, I mean they were world-class actors from all over the world - Oskar Werner, Laurence Harvey, Donald Pleasence, you know... foreigners.

If I'm a guy reading a newspaper, and I hear this actor who I know gets great seats at basketball games, and he's complaining about being typecast, I think, 'Hey man, count your blessings.'

If it wasn't for the Mark Twain Masquers, I don't know where my life would have gone.

In 1958, I was shooting a movie in Florida, and I decided to go to Havana, Cuba, to see what it was like.

In the beginning, when you're acting in amateur theater and off-Broadway, it was unheard of that anyone else would get your costume. And it was important to get a good costume. You put time into that.