Quotes from Peter Falk

I once did a film in Russia because I wanted to see what the hell was going on there.

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

I'm secretly very stuffy.

Acting is like golf: analysis leads to paralysis.

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

My idea of Heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast, and spend the rest of the day drawing.

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.

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

What wouldn't have happened to me if I hadn't ended up in Hartford, Connecticut.

Along came a police lieutenant named Columbo, and my life would never be the same.

The entertainment industry is loaded with extraordinarily talented people. But the true, genuine originals, they're rare.

Usually, I get hired because I'm tall.

I watch practically no TV - ah, what the hell do I watch? Oh, I was for a long time addicted to CNN.

It depends how lenient you are with your definition of artist. If you're going to include those who tap dance at the high school recital, then maybe I am.

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.

There were no artists in Ossining, which was the home of Sing Sing prison. Most of the parents of the guys I knew were guards there.

I still get fan mail for Columbo.

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

The female body is awesome.

I could not chop down a tree if my life depended on it.

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.

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.

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've been there a thousand years, and I never felt comfortable. Beverly Hills - when I first saw it, I thought they put it up this morning. You got to pack water to get to the drugstore.