Vincent DOnofrio Quotes (46 Quotes)

The minute you start feeling like you've got it down, you know what you're doing, you're dead in the water.

It doesn't need to be a No 1 show, it just needs to be good.

So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they'd seen my work in Full Metal Jacket.

It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.

They were all interested in what I was going to do, because I'd never worked in televsion before.

It's true, ... We were just talking about that last night.

When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave.

I'll be working the rest of my life because I'm a character actor and don't have to worry about box office.

I've never tried to be something I'm not.

It's pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people's first impressions of people are really a big mistake.

What kind of recognition do I deserve? I don't deserve any recognition.

Our show is different, because it's not about law and order, it's about psychology, the intent of somebody.

I'm a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after 'Mystic Pizza', not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route.

It was something I was reluctant to do because there have been performances about serial killers in the past that have done pretty well.

The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters.

When you're a child you're able to assimilate so easily into any situation. You even start talking like the people you're around. I wasn't conscious that I was so good at that until I started to truly feel like an actor.

The only thing I do worry about is that the more films I do the more visible I am going to become as a personality because of press and because of the sheer quantity of films.

I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art.

It doesn't need to be a number one show, it just needs to be good.

So a failed movie is not going to ruin my career.

But the one thing that I did do was establish myself as a good actor.

I want every episode to feel like we still haven't done this right yet.

My partner Dan Ireland wants me to direct, and I read a lot of scripts - some good enough that I could see myself. But then it's like, so what? Who cares? Let someone else direct it.

With Altman, he does discuss everything with you, but then leaves you to it and gives you full rein and lets you improvise and create a character while the camera is rolling.

And then, as the years went on, I just kept moving along, busting into doors and getting roles, until I started to actually believe that what these other people were saying was true.

Then I did Mystic Pizza, just to do something I wasn't fat in.

All of us are trying to achieve 100 percent in our work. That's all we struggle to do. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die. It's that struggle to achieve 100 percent, that's where our performance lies, that's what the audience gets. They get the struggle.

This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn't settle well with me at all.

No, I knew when I was doing theater in New York that this was what I was supposed to be doing.

And I have been able to establish this sort of decent reputation as being a decent character actor.

The search for the truth is not for the faint hearted.

Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.

The Whole Wide World is the first movie I've ever produced.

I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.

To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.

When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.

I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.

Look, all you can do when you find your niche is go with it.

Acting is not a mystery. There's nothing that I know that other actors don't know. We all act, we're all actors, we all know the same thing. The only thing that separates us is experience.

Evil changes everybody!

At our best, it's a good experience but we do 22 episodes a year, so there are some clunkers.

Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

Then I thought maybe this guy (Anderson) kind of lucked out and is really just some idiot who's going to direct it like some broad comedy or something, ... Then I talked to Brad on the phone and he's thinking the same with me.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

People who are extremely inside their head, like he was, are caught in a neurosis that goes round and round. Then something will hook them and take them to their end and they can't control it.