Quotes by Steve Buscemi

• It doesn't matter so much where the material comes from, as long as it's good.
• It doesn't matter what part I play, I try and commit myself 100 percent.
• It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started acting.
• 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.
• My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.
• The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
• 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.
• They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
• 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.
• Trees Lounge is based on my own life. Both my parents like the movie. My father, of course, thinks it's a masterpiece.
• 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.
• 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'm terrible at story and structure, but I'm not so bad at writing dialogue.
• The trend now is to shoot in Canada because it's cheaper, and they don't care what the location is.
• I don't tend to think of these characters 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.
• 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.
• Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters.
• Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.
• 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.
• Directing television is really hard - it's so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.
• I did stand-up. I loved George Carlin and Steve Martin.
• I didn't think I'd ever be able to do movies. That was for serious actors.
• My greatest hope was to get discovered as a comedian and get on a sitcom.
• I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.
• 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.
• I think all comics borrow from each other. Only a few have an original voice, and I wasn't one of them. In the end, I couldn't figure out who to steal from, so I stopped doing it.
• 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.
• It doesn't matter to me what the genre is.
• I was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.
• I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up.