Steve Buscemi Quotes

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.

Do you think god stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created here on earth?

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.

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

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.

What if I told you insane was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to p*ss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?

Really interesting things come because you don't know what the rules are, what you can and can't do.

I can't relate to 99% of humanity.

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

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 don't tend to think of the characters i play as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.

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

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.

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

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

I never want to feel like the way that I see it isthe only way. Sometimes mistakes happen and that's better than whatyou thought the scene could be. You allow room for the possibilities.

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

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.

When I was a fireman I was in a lot of burning buildings. It was a great job, the only job I ever had that compares with the thrill of acting.

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.

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

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.

There's a certain type of character that you can't help but come in contact with growing up and living in Brooklyn and Long Island. A certain mixture of moxie, heart, and a wise guy sense of humor.

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 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.

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

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

I could never have imagined the films I've done and the people I've worked with when I was starting out; I certainly did not have a career path.

They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it. Actually, when I did theater, I used to have a partner, and that was the way we used to write a lot of our sketches, through improvisation. So it's something I feel comfortable with.

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.

It doesn't matter so much where the material comes from, as long as it's good.

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

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

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

Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.That's why you hire them, so why tell somebody first what it is you want? I'm more curious to see what they bring to it and then be inspired by it and say: "OK, what if you tried this?" or "What would happen if ... ?"

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I never had any master plan about directing, and I don't really write.