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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

I have no message or answers to social questions.

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

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 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.

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

Most cop movies and TV shows are fantasies.

I even played a part in 'Miami Vice.'

I like being in the '60s.

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

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

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

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 think my high-school acting career lasted a day.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that's just not the case.

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've probably played more non-police roles than people realize.

I like working. I like getting up every morning and going somewhere. Where I do it or what form doesn't matter.

I live my life. And the best place to do that is Chicago.

This isn't the most handsome face in the world, and there are a lot of younger guys out there, but I keep hanging in there.

I'm a bit of a clotheshorse, and having a tailor-made suit is a big deal.