Dennis Farina Quotes

“You can’t act for the editing. You just go in and do the scene the way you think is right.”

― Dennis Farina

“Rooting for the Cubs is not easy, but the best things in life never are.”

― Dennis Farina

“Do whatever you’re directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.”

― Dennis Farina

“I think first impressions are important when you pick up a script.”

― Dennis Farina

“My mother and sisters cooked Italian food, and I never heard of half of the dishes you see in these Italian restaurants. I just go in and order spaghetti.”

― Dennis Farina

“As far as carrying the American banner, you just do what’s right for the kids.”

― Dennis Farina

“I don’t know if I have a technique. I’m just trying to remember the words.”

― Dennis Farina

“I don’t like to be talked into anything. I don’t want to be cajoled.”

― Dennis Farina

“I have a home in Arizona. I go a couple months a year, but basically Chicago is my home.”

― Dennis Farina

“I know people who go back and check themselves, but it drives me crazy. Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that’s just not the case.”

― Dennis Farina

“I learned a long time ago: You’re in the entertainment business. You’re not in the reality business. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.”

― Dennis Farina

“I love England and the historical aspect of it.”

― Dennis Farina

“I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.”

― Dennis Farina

“I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.”

― Dennis Farina

“I wanted to do Buddy Faro as a small budget movie. They said no. So I wanted to do it as a series of recurring TV movies, and they said no. So I agreed to do it as a series.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’d love to do a Western. A real Western like John Ford used to do. There’s not too many of them made, so I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that. They’re awfully hard movies to make.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’ve tried writing. Two days later I’d go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?”

― Dennis Farina

“The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun.”

― Dennis Farina

“The cast was huge, but I never saw anybody.”

― Dennis Farina

“There’s a whole catalogue of actors that never went to acting school.”

― Dennis Farina

“This generation of filmmakers is very good. They’re seasoned, for some reason.”

― Dennis Farina

“This is my first experience working in a foreign movie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much the same all over; you still have to wait in the trailer.”

― Dennis Farina

“Usually you’re in movies with a lot of dissolves and things, but this was kind of quick, more jarring than usual. I thought it would be fun to be in a movie that’s unconventional. Then I met Guy and I liked him. I think he’s a good man.”

― Dennis Farina

“Vince or Brad or Benicio would say, Maybe we should try this, and Guy was open to changes.”

― Dennis Farina

“What you do as a policeman might be the right thing to do, but it’s not entertaining. I left that behind me.”

― Dennis Farina

“When I was a kid going to the movies, we’d go because Bogart was in the movie, or Cagney, or John Wayne. We didn’t know what the story was about or anything.”

― Dennis Farina

“When they released Sidewalks of New York, there were some shots with the towers they were going to take out, and Ed told them no. I don’t think they can deny the towers were a part of New York.”

― Dennis Farina

“You can change a person’s life in an instant; put him in a movie, and you start thinking differently, you want to be in another movie. It’s like an addiction almost.”

― Dennis Farina

“I was a policeman for 18 years.”

― Dennis Farina

“I didn’t fall for a lot of that stardom stuff.”

― Dennis Farina

“I would love, one day before this is all over, to do a Western. That, and to play a priest.”

― Dennis Farina

“I wasn’t so sure about signing up for ‘Law & Order.’ I liked the show, but another TV series? I’ll tell you, though, it’s been great, and I had no idea how popular the show was.”

― Dennis Farina

“Chicago’s always a friendly place to me.”

― Dennis Farina

“Change never bothers me, not really.”

― Dennis Farina

“I don’t need to see the old school to remember it and the teachers there. They changed the way that I’ve always looked at life and learning.”

― Dennis Farina

“I never jumped into anything, and I never liked being cajoled into anything. I’ve pretty much always done things because I wanted to do them.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’m just a character actor.”

― Dennis Farina

“Sometimes I do pinch myself about the life I’ve had.”

― Dennis Farina

“I think there is something very nice about going to work to try to make people laugh.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’m set in my own ways. I like to do the things I want to do when I want to do them.”

― Dennis Farina

“My friends are still the guys I met 40 or 50 years ago.”

― Dennis Farina

“I loved ‘Buddy Faro.’ I loved the whole idea.”

― Dennis Farina

“I try to bring my own style to a role, but I can’t change how people think of me.”

― Dennis Farina

“My best year was probably 1948, and after that, it’s been downhill for me.”

― Dennis Farina

“When I was younger, I watched all the detective shows.”

― Dennis Farina

“For some reason or another, ‘Richard Diamond, Private Eye,’ still sticks out in my mind. I don’t think I particularly liked that show, but for some reason, he sticks in my mind.”

― Dennis Farina

“Sometimes you can take those dramatic roles and maybe interject a little humor into them, and I think the reverse also works.”

― Dennis Farina

“One of the funny things in life to me is a guy who takes himself very seriously.”

― Dennis Farina

“If I’m characterized as a character actor, that’s fine with me. Whatever they want to call me is fine.”

― Dennis Farina

“In the kind of roles I do, you can do them and walk away from it and have a really nice time.”

― Dennis Farina

“I realize that no one is going to come to me and ask me to be Julius Caesar or a romantic lead, but I think I’m a certain type of guy who looks a certain way, and that’s just the reality of things.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’ve taken up golf… or golf has taken me up.”

― Dennis Farina

“When I first started out acting, I didn’t have anything to lose. I had another career. If I fell on my face, I could say, ‘I’ll see ya,’ and go back to working.”

― Dennis Farina

“When I first got into acting, I never had any long-term goals, never had any plan. I just thought it would be a good way to make some extra money.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’m very lucky. I’m the most fortunate guy that I know.”

― Dennis Farina

“We know television should educate and inform, and I believe it should entertain.”

― Dennis Farina

“I have no message or answers to social questions.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’ve worked on what I think are good things.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’ve been involved in some movies that I really thought were going to take off that didn’t. And then I’ve thought, ‘This movie’s not going anywhere,’ and it worked. The same thing with television shows.”

― Dennis Farina

“I just think ‘Law & Order’ is the gold standard. History is going to show that it’s probably one of the best series of shows that has been on television.”

― Dennis Farina

“I really don’t think there’s such a thing as an ex-policeman.”

― Dennis Farina

“Most cop movies and TV shows are fantasies.”

― Dennis Farina

“Car chases usually don’t involve major criminals – they’re usually guys afraid of getting another traffic ticket.”

― Dennis Farina

“The most credible police shows I’ve ever seen were ‘Barney Miller’ on TV and ‘The French Connection’ movie. They showed the tedious side of police work.”

― Dennis Farina

“I even played a part in ‘Miami Vice.’”

― Dennis Farina

“I like being in the ’60s.”

― Dennis Farina

“There’s not too many offers that come my way about being in a musical.”

― Dennis Farina

“This face is nothing to brag about. I don’t know what it is that these people see in my face.”

― Dennis Farina

“It was a great time, and I liked the guys. I liked getting up every morning and being a cop.”

― Dennis Farina

“My parents, I don’t know about ‘strict,’ but I would say they were fair and judicious, you know?”

― Dennis Farina

“If you did something, and it wasn’t right, you definitely found out about it. And they were pretty smart people, both my parents, so you didn’t get too much by them.”

― Dennis Farina

“I think my high-school acting career lasted a day.”

― Dennis Farina

“You really have to act on the force, too. You’re involved in a hundred things a day, and you have to react in a hundred different ways, depending on what’s going on. And you learn that as you go through your career, how you handle certain situations, interrogations, how you carry yourself. There’s a kind of acting to it.”

― Dennis Farina

“Am I a good actor? I don’t think about it. But I’m working on it.”

― Dennis Farina

“Acting is a work in progress for me. I just try to keep my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open, especially with the people I’ve worked with.”

― Dennis Farina

“I have – and you gotta believe this – hardly ever met anybody in Hollywood who’s not nice. There are some people I don’t like, but everybody has been very nice.”

― Dennis Farina

“I had seen ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and I thought that was a different kind of film than I’d seen before, with that kind of editing and slick camera movements.”

― Dennis Farina

“You can’t act for the editing. You have to leave that to him. So you just go in and do the scene the way you think is right or whatever you’re directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.”

― Dennis Farina

“Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that’s just not the case.”

― Dennis Farina

“Maybe it’s because I was too much reality, but I’m not interested in seeing too much reality anymore. I’d rather watch a Dean Martin concert and let the world go by.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’ve probably played more non-police roles than people realize.”

― Dennis Farina

“I like working. I like getting up every morning and going somewhere. Where I do it or what form doesn’t matter.”

― Dennis Farina

“I live my life. And the best place to do that is Chicago.”

― Dennis Farina

“People are always telling me to shut up about Chicago.”

― Dennis Farina

“This isn’t the most handsome face in the world, and there are a lot of younger guys out there, but I keep hanging in there.”

― Dennis Farina

“I’m a bit of a clotheshorse, and having a tailor-made suit is a big deal.”

― Dennis Farina