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 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.

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!'

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

There's a bit of a problem. The script that I like, the network doesn't like. The script that they like, I don't like.

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.'

To be a theater actor, I think you have to do plays all the time.

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.

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.

The celebrity craze is a little much. But it's good for me, so you don't bite the hand that feeds you.

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

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 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 just keep working.

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.

To be totally sincere, I'd surely be a better actor today if I hadn't played Columbo all these years.

When I was young, I was looking for people to look up to - role models I could respect.

When I was a kid growing up, you maybe secretly wanted to be an actor, but you never said.

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

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

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

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.

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

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