A biography for Peter Falkhasn’t been written yet.
“You talk about what a director, he was smart. He said, Turn the camera on!”
“I've been asked a few thousand times how much of Columbo is Falk and vice versa.”
“I still get fan mail for Columbo.”
“The whole thing was an actor's dream - getting a character that tickles you so much you can't wait to act as him.”
“I never turned a part down when they offered me money.”
“I lose things. I am preoccupied. I am misty. Eyeglasses? I go through eyeglasses like tissue.”
“I watch practically no TV - ah, what the hell do I watch? Oh, I was for a long time addicted to CNN.”
“The truth is, no one is like Columbo.”
“I'm old fashioned. I really think you should know how to draw before you start painting. I use charcoal and graphite; I put a skylight in. In my house, I turned the garage into an art studio. So I'm awash in art studios.”
“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.”
“In 1958, I was shooting a movie in Florida, and I decided to go to Havana, Cuba, to see what it was like.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When I was a kid growing up, you maybe secretly wanted to be an actor, but you never said.”
“Strange thing, this television.”
“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.'”
“Going to Hartford turned out to be the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.”
“What's the name of that famous museum in Paris? The Louvre? I went through that place in 20 minutes.”