Steve Buscemi

“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.”

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

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

“I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“It doesn't matter to me what the genre is.”

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

“What was frustrating about Armageddon was the time I spent not doing anything. It was a big special effects film, and I wasn't crazy about pretending I was in outer space. It feels ridiculous.”

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

“There’s something about being naïve. Really interesting things come because you don’t know what the rules are, what you can and can’t do.”

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

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

“I talked with Quentin about where the character came from, and he told me Kansas City. I don't know how somebody talks from Kansas City, so I made him from New York.”