If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.

We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure.

There's always a hunger, when you're young, to go from peak to peak and avoid the valleys.

My dear sir, it haunted me for the rest of my life.

I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.

I have unqualified admiration for Brad Pitt.

Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.

I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star.

The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.

Everybody wants to be a movie star. I bet if you ask that guy would he like to be a movie star, he'd say, 'Sure.'

If you were brought up in the '40s, a kid in Ossining, New York, hanging out at the poolroom and stealing, how can you think, 'Here I am in Ossining. I, too, can be a movie star!'

Acting is like golf: analysis leads to paralysis.

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.

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

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

I never turned a part down when they offered me money.

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.

Oh, I was some efficiency expert. On my first day, I couldn't find my own office in Hartford and wound up in the Post Office.

I'm secretly very stuffy.

Strange thing, this television.

There isn't an Eskimo who doesn't love 'Columbo.'

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