Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe it's because I was too much reality, but I'm not interested in seeing too much reality anymore. I'd rather watch a Dean Martin concert and let the world go by.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
I don't watch any of my own movies, but I love going to the movies. To me, there is nothing more relaxing or gratifying than sitting down in the dark and having some popcorn and watching a great movie.
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.
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.
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.
In a sense, all actors are character actors, because we're all playing different characters. But a lot of the time - and I don't know, because I'm not a writer - but writers a lot of times write second- and third-tier characters better than they write primary characters. I guess they're more fun.
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.
Writer-directors are a little bit more liberal, rather than having just the writer on the set, because I think sometimes the writer becomes too precious with the words. If you're a writer-director, you can see what you're doing and see your work in action, so I think you can correct it right there and still not compromise yourself.