Jon Polito

Jon Polito: You can't act alone. Use the props, the setting, the crew around you, and of course your fellow actors. Acting is like a sporting match; a tennis game, but no one should win or lose. The game's the thing!

Jon Polito: I'm at my best when I'm challenged. It's that simple. I think everybody is. I think that's where your mettle is proven.

Jon Polito: (describing his character's fate on "Homicide") I asked Tom specifically—after we had our words and he was angry at me, I said, "Look, I don't care how angry you are with me, please don't have me commit suicide or anything negative with this character" because I knew the real policeman who I was playing. But he instead chose to have me commit suicide in a ridiculous way, I thought. So I never agreed with my death, and I never watched the show until they called me years later, and we had sort of patched it up and he said "You'll come back as a ghost," which I did.

Jon Polito: (on typecasting) You know, it's a funny thing. I don't have a problem - first of all, my theory is there are only gangsters and cops. There are also fathers, but they are really boring unless some tragedy happens to the father.