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. – Peter Falk
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. – Peter Falk
In the theater, you didn’t have any marks. Your instincts in rehearsal told you what the blocking was. On film, they reversed it. They decided ahead of time what your instincts were, before you even arrived. – Peter Falk
You thought the stage, you thought Broadway: that was the pot at the end of the rainbow. The idea of being in Hollywood was like going to the Moon or Mars. – Peter Falk
The whole thing was an actor’s dream – getting a character that tickles you so much you can’t wait to act as him. – Peter Falk
It became the joke of the neighbourhood. If the umpire ruled me out on a bad call, I’d take the fake eye out and hand it to him. – Peter Falk
The first time I ever spoke to John Cassavetes was at a Lakers game. I got up to go for a hot dog, and he was coming in the opposite direction. I don’t know who said hello first, but we started talking, and it turned out that he went to high school with my first wife, Alice. – Peter Falk
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. – Peter Falk
When I was a kid growing up, you maybe secretly wanted to be an actor, but you never said. – Peter Falk
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.’ – Peter Falk
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. – Peter Falk
The entertainment industry is loaded with extraordinarily talented people. But the true, genuine originals, they’re rare. – Peter Falk
Sure, I miss some things about the stage. The thing I like is the immediacy. But then I complain, ‘I gotta do the same part for six months.’ – Peter Falk
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. – Peter Falk
When I go see a basketball game, I’m always in the front row. I always have a table at a restaurant; I never have trouble getting a taxi. – Peter Falk
You think you’re in another civilization, another time, and then you see antennas coming out of these hovels, and your mouth falls open when you see the descendants of the Incas shouting ‘Columbo! Columbo!’ – Peter Falk
When I was growing up in Ossining, N.Y., playing pool with the guys, the thought that any one of us might become an actor was as far-fetched as being knighted by the queen of England. – Peter Falk
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. – Peter Falk
I watch practically no TV – ah, what the hell do I watch? Oh, I was for a long time addicted to CNN. – Peter Falk
