Armand Assante

“The whole industry is so screwed up by economics. It's disgusting to me.”

“I've worked for 27 years nonstop in theater and films. That's a lot of work.”

“You love what you do, you are cursed with it, and then you get known for being cursed with it.”

“I never pursued Hollywood banging my drum, because I was never in a film big enough to do that.”

“I never pursued a career relentlessly.”

“The Italian gangster thing has become a form of the modern-day Western.”

“I've got the best deal on Earth. Where else can I sin and know that I'm forgiven for it?”

“I've brought my daughters all over the world-they travel with me. I drag them out of school just to keep the relationship. When I'm home I'm a big-time daddy.”

“I don't champion the idea of being in a Hollywood movie. I never had fun in one of them.”

“Maybe you don't work for seven months a year, but you'll work again. It may be a piece of garbage, so you wear hip boots.”

“I do not want to act unless I have a a great intimacy with the people I'm working with.”

“Literature is air, and I'm suffocating in mediocrity.”

“My dream as a youngster was to be like Olivier. To be a great stage actor. To be a great Shakespearean actor. To me that is the Olympics of acting.”

“I go out there and make a fool of myself. It's inevitable.”

“Acting is a total physical, emotional sensation.”

“I live a very quiet life, although I'm very urban and a diehard New Yorker.”

“I stopped courting Hollywood a long time ago.”

“It's a blessing and a curse. But it's not always the best situation to be in. As a profession, I don't recommend acting at all.”