I hope the perception is that I'm an actor, I never intended to be a movie star.

I like things that make you grit your teeth. I like tucking my chin in and sort of leading into the storm. I like that feeling. I like it a lot.

I live in a landscape, which every single day of my life is enriching.

Acting is about people. Other people. Otherwise, you're not acting, you're doing monologues.

The more articulate somebody is, the more suspicious I am of them. I like to feel that the important things remain unsaid.

Everybody has to know for themselves what they're capable of.

A lot of acting is private time.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete.

I turned down a lot of films before I made my first one. I knew that it was time for me to get into movies.

I don't need bodyguards. I'm from the South Bronx.

I used to say I wanted to genuflect to a woman, put her up on a pedestal higher and higher, way up beyond my grasp...Then I'd find another one.

The literal, basic thing of the stage is really like a magnet. It brings me back to earth.

Shakespeare's plays are more violent than 'Scarface.'

It wasn't until I got older that I realized acting was something I could really do.

Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life.

I learned to wrestle, I learned defensive fighting at a young age, because when someone hit me, I would throw up and fall down.

I'm constantly striving to break through to something new. You try to maintain a neutral approach to your work, and not be too hard on yourself.

Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.

The difference between the actor and the painter is that the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act.