Top 45 Dennis Farina Quotes

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

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.

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

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

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

I love England and the historical aspect of it.

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

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

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.

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

I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.

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

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

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

People are always telling me to shut up about Chicago.

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.

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

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.

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

Chicago’s always a friendly place to me.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I even played a part in ‘Miami Vice.’

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

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

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

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

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

The cast was huge, but I never saw anybody.

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.

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.

Most cop movies and TV shows are fantasies.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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