[on what made Quincy M.E. (1976) a hit] Quincy was a muckraker, like Upton Sinclair, who wrote about injustices. He was my ideal as a youngster, my author, my hero. Everybody said, "Quincy' will never be a hit.". I said, "You guys are wrong. He's two heroes in one, a cop and a doctor". A coroner has power. He can tell the police commissioner to investigate a murder. I saw the opportunity to do what I'd gotten into the theater to do--give a message. They were going to do cops and robbers with "Quincy". I said, "You promised me I could do causes". They said, "Nobody wants to see that" I said, "Look at the success of 60 Minutes (1968). They want to see it if you present it as entertainment". Show less «

[on his great friend Tony Randall] The best friend a man could ever have. I loved him dearly. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. I will miss him for the rest of my days. Show less «

[on his show Quincy M.E. (1976)]: We were the first CSI [CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)]. All these other shows just took what we did and made it bloodier and sexier. Our show was actually about something, we had a message and a moral. You can't compare gold to tin foil. I was a one-man "CSI". Show less «

[on former roommate Charles Bronson] You remembered him. He had an amazing presence.

[on attending rival and decades-old enemy Norman Fell's funeral]: Best funeral I've ever been to. I've never laughed so hard in years. I had the time of my life. NOTE: As it turned out, their "feud" was just a friendly rivalry that got blown out of proportion, and they just mischievously encouraged the perception of a feud. In reality, they were friends. Show less «

[on smoking] I saw John Garfield smoke. He was my idol, so I smoked. I even smoked like him . . . The only really stupid thing I ever did in my life was to start smoking. Show less «

[on the hardships of his life] Poverty can teach lessons that privilege cannot.

[on people comparing him to "Oscar Madison" from The Odd Couple (1970)] People think I'm like Oscar. When they find out I'm not, they seem disappointed. Show less «

[on working with Tony Randall] There's nobody better to improvise with than Tony. A script might say,"Oscar teaches Felix football". There would be four blank pages. He would provoke me into reacting to what he did. Mine was the easy part. Show less «