William Devane quotes

William Devane is an American actor renowned for his work in film, television, and theatre. Audiences recognize him for his roles in productions such as "Knots Landing," "Family Plot," and "24." He continues to be respected for his versatile performances and enduring career. Here are 30 of his quotes:

What I would have liked to do on that show was play a secretary of state who has huge personal business interests throughout the world. That, to me, seems to be more in synch with reality. (William Devane)
When you go to a movie, it's about what's not being said. I tried to bring that to Greg Sumner. It was always about what's not being said. View quote
William Devane
It would have been nice for Greg to eventually grow into a mature relationship with Laura. He was moving toward that already but then took a turn into the juvenile with Paige. View quote
William Devane
I don't play polo anymore because I am too old. But we still have a half a dozen horses - a couple of young horses we are teaching how to play polo and older horses that are real trustworthy when you get them up in the mountains. View quote
William Devane
I would fix other people's lines if they asked me on occasion. The hard part of writing is the architecture of it, getting the story and structuring it. Not the tweaking of lines. View quote
William Devane
The West Wing seems to be feeding the myth about how presidential politics are. View quote
William Devane
I try to watch only real things, which basically amounts to C-Span for me. I like real people in real situations. I learn from that. View quote
William Devane
And I have to credit David Jacobs with the opportunities he gave me. He was totally into sharing the creation of characters. David put together a show that told the story of people over many years' time and that was greatly enjoyable. Though nowadays that is frowned upon. View quote
William Devane
It worked well because Don Murray didn't want to be on Knots anymore. View quote
William Devane
Clint Eastwood is aging beautifully. But someone like Burt Reynolds and others are practically destroying their faces in the amount of work they have. View quote
William Devane
A show like Knots or any other show that can be called a soap opera does terribly in syndication because if you're a viewer and you miss a week you don't know what's going on. (William Devane)
I'm trying to find a character that's my age and I can sustain week after week. I'd like to do a series. View quote
William Devane
Networks don't want a show with a continuing story. There's no backend potential. View quote
William Devane
The business is built on slowing or even stopping the aging process. View quote
William Devane
Ultimately the Emmys are a popularity contest. View quote
William Devane
There's a certain possessiveness of writers sometimes. View quote
William Devane
If you watch Cheers, in 12 years they didn't age a day. View quote
William Devane
Writers are not always right however, but then again, I've been on shows where the actors have complete control and change everything and it's terrible. View quote
William Devane
Even though shows like NYPD Blue are soaps in my opinion, but they're individualized to an extent that you can still follow what's going on if you miss a week. View quote
William Devane
I like working fast, but I got to the age where the real difference between television and the movies is, I'm not smart enough to be in the movies. It's a very political world. In all modesty, I can say that I'm a much better actor, but that doesn't matter. View quote
William Devane
At one time, whenever the hell it was, they wanted a character to come in and stir up the pot. They brought me in for 8-10 episodes and said we'll try it for that. (William Devane)
David was the kind of guy who was totally supportive of the actors and instructed the writing staff to trust the actor's instincts, since after all, it's the actors playing the character. View quote
William Devane
And all of Laura's stuff, what they wrote originally wasn't as good and Constance wound up doing that herself. That was all her stuff, reading to the child, because she had children herself and that's what she would have done. View quote
William Devane
Donna Mills came on the show as a female antagonist, about a year before, so now they wanted to have a male antagonist. I was cast as a Senator to shake things up. View quote
William Devane
I didn't care about that because I'm not a diplomatic person to begin with. I just went along with things and did what I wanted to do because I knew they had to shoot their 12 pages a day. And when they realized that I didn't alter the text they really didn't mind what I did. View quote
William Devane

William Devane

William Devane - Image
Occupation: American Actor
Born: September 5, 1937
Quotes count: 30