Steve Buscemi Quotes

I've never had a grand plan. I've only just tried to keep open to many different possibilities, have fun and work with people who are passionate about what they do.

I'm always looking for other interesting films to either act in or direct.

Growing up, yeah, I had a magic kit with learn tricks and learn card tricks, but I was never ... I used to watch whatever magic special was on as a kid, but then, it's not that I lost interest, but to be a magician, you really, it's really hard work. Learning lines is hard enough; learning sleight of hand, that's real practice.

I've always tried to have a healthy take on the characters I play; they are only characters I play.

When I moved to the East Village in the late seventies, I wanted to be a street performer, so I practiced daily. I never did work up the skills or the courage to perform on the street, though.

Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.

I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it.

When I was in pre-production for Trees Lounge, I was hearing the cinematographer talking with the production designer about colours and this and that, and feeling like I was losing control.

I read the script and decide if a particular character looks fun to play. I look for complexity and a sense of humor. Those are crucial, real things to life.

Shooting in sequence, I think it intensifies everybody's relationship, the crew, the actors. You have to be very focused, and shooting at night is a challenge because you get tired. I think it requires a special kind of concentration, but it's also exhilarating.

To me, score is really important. I would rather not have any score if it's something that's going to detract from the film. So often when I watch films, the score is what really bothers me.

I just like playing interesting, complex, complicated characters. I like films that also have an element of humor.

I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

I've always loved comedy and growing up it was the comedies that I really responded to. So I don't know how it turned out that once I started acting that I started getting a certain kind of role, that I never saw myself as growing up, so I really love when I get an opportunity to play a [comedian] role.

It's great working with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Those guys are really funny.

When I was doing stand-up, I was about twenty, and I really think that that's a little too young. I didn't have a whole lot of life experience to draw on.

Just because people want to eat the burger doesn't mean they want to meet the cow.

I don't think I'm that much different from any other working actor that's trying to make a living.

It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started acting.

It's always fun to get to do independent film because I believe that that's the life blood of film. It's about writers and directors who truly have their own vision, and that's hard.

Character actors just pile up the credits because you work on a movie for, like, a few days. It's not like I'm the lead in everything I do - far from it. I'm not spending three or four months on a picture; I'm spending three or four weeks. Sometimes three or four days.

I never know what I'm going to get. A 'Sopranos' fan is very different from a 'Big Lebowski' fan.

I guess I don't think about age too much. I've always felt older than I really am anyway. I'm not dreading getting older and I don't miss the anxiety of being younger.

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

I usually get freaked out if I'm in a situation where a lot of people recognise me at once.

The trend now is to shoot in Canada because it's cheaper, and they don't care what the location is.

My favorite review described me as the cinematic equivalent of junk mail. I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a dig.

I think distribution has become a lot harder. With the whole explosion of digital video, there's just a lot more people making films. Distributors have a lot more choice. I do think there's an audience out there for small films. It's obvious to me what the studios do: they've co-opted independent film. They all have their independent arm. They can afford to crush the competition.

We both [with Jo Andres] think that it is really important to our culture that we support all kinds of music, all kinds of theatre and all kinds of art because you never know what moves people. We've always believed that there should be a strong voice outside the commercial world. Certainly, the commercial world has a huge place in our culture and we also support that - but, we also want to support the stuff that lives outside of that.

I've certainly worked with really great directors who haven't acted.

With Animal Factory you'd think that because it's mostly interiors, you could shoot it anywhere. So we shot this in Philadelphia, and we had the cooperation of the prison system.

I was really young, just playing with puppets a lot and doing all the voices and acting it out - normal kid stuff. But then I'd hear my mother talking about it to her relatives, marveling at it as if it was something unique. And it made me realize, 'Oh, maybe I do have a talent for something.'

All the roles I play, I don't see any of my roles in films that they're typically leading men.

Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.

I always find that it's when a script is not detailed, then I have to do more work as an actor.

It's not like I'm looking for things that I can direct that I can also act in, but when it's right, I feel like the actor side of me wants to have that opportunity.

I love working with Scorsese. He's not only a brilliant director and is great working with actors, but he's also a walking human film encyclopedia. It's fun to talk about movies with him.

I'm terrible at story and structure, but I'm not so bad at writing dialogue.

I don't think about the characters I choose to play, analytically or consciously.

To me, it doesn't really matter how big the part is as long as the part is important to the story.

In the beginning, it wasn't even a question of deciding I'm going to do independent film and not commercial films - I wasn't being offered any commercial films, and there wasn't an independent scene.

I was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.

Usually, I only get to work a few weeks on a movie, or I often don't make it to the end of the movie because I'm disposed of.

Directing television is really hard - it's so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.

It doesn't matter what part I play, I try and commit myself 100 percent.

Oftentimes you'll see stuff that makes it into the mainstream that has been influenced by things that are clearly not from the mainstream.

Trees Lounge is based on my own life. Both my parents like the movie. My father, of course, thinks it's a masterpiece.

Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters.

My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.

I didn't think I'd ever be able to do movies. That was for serious actors.

My dad had a temper. I have a temper. Most people I know have a temper. And I think it comes out mostly with your family. I don't think it's unique to the Buscemis, but it's something I've been able to tap into when I play certain roles.

The thrill of performing - that's something that hasn't changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience - it's the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins' birthday party.

The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.

Every day's an adventure when I step out of my door. That's why I usually wear a hat and keep my head low.

I like character-driven stuff. It doesn't matter, the size of the part.

The first movie I had a featured role in was Parting Glances.

My greatest hope was to get discovered as a comedian and get on a sitcom.

I suppose things are better now, but ... I don't know. People still hate each other, they just know how to hide it better.

I hope I don't make it sound like it's this big to-do, but even putting on real cufflinks takes work.

Communication is the key, and it's one thing I had to learn-to talk to the actors. I was so involved with the visual and technical aspects that I would forget about the actors.

What's "God"? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God's the guy that ignores you.

When I get cast, I always flip to the end of the script to see if my character gets beaten up or killed.

All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.

I like telling stories about people with problems. I can't really put it much simpler than that.

By nature, I think I am a pretty private person, and that is what is hard even doing interviews for films that I really love doing, because in some ways, it diminishes the experience that I had.

I don't blame any director for wanting to do something more commercial. That's all part of the business. I certainly have done it, as an actor.

I had a magic kit. I never really followed through on it, but I had my phase of wanting to do it, sure.