Vincent D'Onofrio Quotes

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

Im 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'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.

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

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

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

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

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

The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Evil changes everybody!

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

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

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.

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

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

When I was younger, it was about doing something that made me nervous. Now, it's for many different reasons. I've had the opportunity to have fun. I don't know why that is, but I like it.

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

I've never played a master thief. And I think I am one.

My 22-year-old [son] can see everything I've done, but my 15-year-old hasn't been able to see anything, at all. But yeah, I hope I'm a super cool dad.

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

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.

Everybody's motivation comes from the core of who they are.