The female body is awesome.

Initially, they wanted Columbo to wear a driving coat. I said: 'Are you kidding? He's not an English aristocrat.'

Sometimes I was in school plays, but only when the kid they'd originally picked got sick and they asked me to substitute.

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

The whole thing was an actor's dream - getting a character that tickles you so much you can't wait to act as him.

My wife loves to get all dressed up and go out, and I'm this gloomy Virgo. It works because of the mutual recognition that we are two democratic narcissists. She does what she has to do, and I do what I have to do. We respect that.

When I was a kid, the idea of gettin' paid to paint your face... listen, I grew up in Ossining, New York, a nice little town by the Hudson, and nothin' ever interested me except being your usual high school big shot, which I was an' loved it, played all the sports and goofed around, always out on the street with the guys, everything was funny t'me.

I still get fan mail for Columbo.

They wouldn't take me in the navy because of my glass eye. So I joined the merchant navy, who allowed monocular crew if you worked in the kitchens. You're not wanted on deck or in the engine room with one eye, but you're good to fire up the ovens and cook hundreds of chops.

What's the name of that famous museum in Paris? The Louvre? I went through that place in 20 minutes.

Actors know one thing: If you're left just with words, you're in trouble.

It helps an actor an awful lot when he looks like the part. There's nothing more disconcerting, that makes you more anxious or more insecure, than when you don't look like who you're supposed to be.

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

I've never worried about the grand concepts.

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

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

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'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.

In order to be totally spontaneous, you can't be too obsessed with accuracy, but if you're inaccurate in a drawing, it will look fake, and when you act, it will sound fake. You have to find miraculously some proper balance between the two, but there's no formula.

My father's whole life was work. He had a retail store in Ossining, New York, and I mean, he was down there at 6:15 every morning. The store didn't open until 9, but he hadda be down there. That's all he knew.

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

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.

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.

I'm not an ace at small talk.