William Petersen Quotes

I think you can find yourself on one of these shows for a long period of time and think that all you’ll ever be able to do is that character. Certainly people think of you that way.

The beard is here because I got tired of shaving and Grissom, subsequently, got tired of shaving. Grissom, like any other 50-year-old man, is going through a series of mid-life changes. Who knows, he may start drinking.

I had panic attacks during rehearsal. There were times when I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it.

Theater in Chicago will always be my first love. It started careers for me and about 50 of my friends. We all love coming back. As soon as the TV show is over, I’ll be back in Chicago, doing live theater.

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.

The show can go on without me, and probably will, but I want to come back to act in Chicago. My wife and I just bought a condo downtown, and I want to do theater.

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.

I won’t miss Grissom. It was a complete life for me that’s reached its end, and it’s reached it in the right way, I think. So I won’t miss Grissom. And I hope that the audience won’t miss him either.

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.

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.

If I could change on thing about myself, I would: Have better knees. Mine are shot because of injuries. You’re only as good as your legs, whether you’re an athlete or an actor.

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.

When we get involved in the ratings, then we’re doing the network’s job. We need to focus on our work.

Grissom comes from a place where we know he had a deaf mother, he was raised in a silent household, on some level, had a father who potentially was not around and he learned what he knew by himself in the back yard, with bugs and animals. He’s not comfortable being a supervisor and that’s his problem.

Grissom is a character who doesn’t really want people poking around in his life. He likes to poke around in his work.