Basically, we are a whole world of people desperately trying to figure out what is the dark side of our natures and how much can we explore without becoming something else.
– William Petersen
I didn't want to play a lawyer. I didn't want to play a doctor. I didn't want to play a single dad. I wanted to do something I felt I could learn from, something that would be a challenge and something that would not dry up.
– William Petersen
I get a lot of stuff from Germany - stuffed bugs and tarantulas.
– William Petersen
I want to live and work in Chicago for the rest of my life. You know when you were growing up and you wanted to become president? What I want now is to be mayor of this damned town in ten years.
– William Petersen
I'd lulled myself into the insularity of competence. I'd forgotten that, to do good work as an actor, you have to keep alive that part of yourself that's rebellious, that's an outlaw, that's... that's stark, raving crazy.
– William Petersen
I'm sure as hell glad all this movie stuff happened when I was thirty-two, when I'd had all those years at Remains to build a viable perspective. If it'd happened to me when I was twenty-three, I would have been one helluva mess. I'd hate to be Rob Lowe. Poor bastard.
– William Petersen
I've been telling anybody who would listen that I wanted to do a series for the last 10 years. But I wouldn't do it if I was just another cop pushing bad guys up against the wall.
– William Petersen
I've never been in this business for the recognition or the awards. I just want to do good work, grab a decent paycheck, and move onto the next job.
– William Petersen
If I stayed a football player, my career would have been over 20 years ago. As it is, my knees are shot. I found I got the same good feeling in acting that I had in sports, but I found I could have a more profound impact on people.
– William Petersen
Maybe they know my name, maybe they don't, but we're going to get that damned play on, even if I have to hit a liquor store.
– William Petersen
Now I'm seen by more people in one episode than I was in 20 years of theatre and movies. It's gratifying to have an impact on 25 million people a night, but I can say goodbye to my lunch-pail life as a working actor. I'm scared I might be a celebrity.
– William Petersen
On CBS, as long as I stay younger than Mike Wallace and Dan Rather, I'm OK.
– William Petersen
One of the things I love about theater, one of the reasons I'll never give it up, is that it's fifty percent the audience's responsibility.
– William Petersen
Sure, I always chose rebels to identify with - I still do - but to me a rebel isn't so much someone who breaks the law as someone who goes against the odds.
– William Petersen
Thomas McGuane's characters are always a little quirky, but they're so rich, so expressive. There isn't an actor around who wouldn't kill to play one of them.
– William Petersen
We're getting to the age when we're starting to see that responsibility isn't such a bad thing, when we see maturity as the key to sustenance.
– William Petersen
X-Files operated off of 'What if?' Are UFOs out there? Who knows? It's completely nebulous. But our show is about reality. Forget Survivor. CSI is the real reality show.
– William Petersen
I was horrible at science and math. I couldn't pass a test to save my life! I'm surprised that it didn't take me until I was 20 to graduate. That's why my role is so cool - Grissom is the complete opposite of me.