Christopher Walken Quotes

I think the fact that I was raised in show business, in New York City, in the '50s, that's affected my personality to the point that I'm a little different.

I was actually born in New York. We lived there until I was three so I grew up watching Sesame Street and hearing the accent. You are a sponge at that age, soaking everything up.

I moved to LA and decided to do films and television, mainly because the theater in New York is totally dead.

I think a lot of people just assumed I came to L.A. to do more television and get into show business.

My dream would be to be on a show that shoots in New York, because I live here, and then I could walk to work.

Every night, half an hour before curtain up, the bells of St. Malachy's, the Actors' Chapel on New York's 49th Street, peal the tune of 'There's No Business Like Show Business.' If you walk the streets of the theatre district before a show and see the vast, enthusiastic lines it sounds like a calling: there is certainly no place like Broadway.

It's tourists in New York. Everything is geared towards that. It's so hard on Broadway now for them to get people in there. They have to compete with so many other entertainments, so they have to bring a star in which puts people there out of work.

I grew up mostly in Schenectady, N.Y. From an early age, building and creating things was a real passion for me.

Before Disney, I did other shows so I was aware of the business. They're all the same in that they're a professional environment. The only difference between a Disney show and other network shows are in the age of the actors you're working with and the age of the intended audience.

There's something terribly solitary about working in movies and television, and in New York, so much of the theater is showcasing.

I feel like it's a golden age for television.

I gravitated toward being a funny guy. I liked the radio comedians. I lived in the Golden Age of radio, and the Golden Age of television came along when I was still in my early teens.

I came to New York in 1974, when I graduated from college. And you had to use 'Backstage' because all of the auditions were listed there. Most people didn't come with agents, so you got to see a lot of what was auditioning and when and where. 'Backstage' made sure you knew the major places.

I was an actor in New York, dude.

Director Baz Luhrmann flew me to New York to read for 'Moulin Rouge!' Maybe I was a little blase about it.

A lot of people didn't know I was doing Broadway. They thought I was one of those guys who was famous for being famous. I was the one who sat next to Charles Nelson Reilly and said funny things.

I did a lot of TV work for more than 30 years in New York and L.A., but I would get on the stage whenever I could.

I grew up on camera. I started at 16.

I want to do everything. I just want variety and longevity. I've never filmed a movie before, I want to do that. I want to come back to theater at some point. But I was in New York for like ten years, grinding. I'm ready to be in L.A. for a little while, and really experience film and television.

My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years.

I feel very, very lucky to have been involved with a project that's gone on as long as 'The Closer' has. You really don't get to do that in this profession.

I grew up in Los Angeles. I watched lots of television; I still watch lots of television.

I grew up a block away from Hell, and my pop-pop was a chef in Hell's Kitchen.

The New York theater community didn't like being invaded by reality stars - they still don't - but I got in there and auditioned just like everybody else. They hired me for 'Hairspray' to help sell tickets for a few weeks, but I ended up being there much longer than originally planned and started to carve a niche for myself.

I had a really fun career in TV right after I left politics.