“Art can go beyond certain boundaries or blindness that we would have without that.”
“Being anonymous is a great luxury. It’s a big loss to lose that. Mostly, the loss is the ability to observe others without being observed yourself. And as an actor, that is your key tool.”
“I grew up in Queens in N.Y., and in parts of my neighbourhood, there were a lot of Italian Americans and a lot of people who were either affiliated with nefarious people or had seen so many movies that they were embodying that.”
“I love the accessibility that my great nation affords us, but it is virtually inescapable for most people in America, and many places abroad, to rely on inexpensive yet unhealthy meals as a main source of sustenance.”
“I was depressed for a year after ‘The Pianist,’ and I don’t suffer from that, generally. It wasn’t just a depression; it was a mourning.”
“I’ve been producing projects, and I hope that It’s inevitable one day that I direct a film. I have a lot of things I want to do.”
“I’ve been very lucky to work with great filmmakers. But I think my days of just freely acting regularly, that being my sole creative fulfillment, are gone.”
“It’s great when people appreciate your work, but I don’t know how seriously to take it. The amazing thing is that I found something so early that I can support myself doing, and that can even be extremely lucrative, but I love it either way.”
“It’s interesting because you feel on the one hand, we understand people from what the say, and in another sense, you’d think that you’d be able to convey more through dialogue.”
“It’s interesting, winning an Academy Award as a young man… life-changing, but I’m just me within that. It’s been very helpful for my career, but I’m trying to stay on the path I was on before.”