“I’ve been a lavatory attendant, a theatre usher, a panhandler, all for real. Now, as an actor, I can be a journalist today and a brain surgeon tomorrow. That’s the stuff my dreams are made of.”

Certainly the movies were always in the air for me. I come from the era when actors thought it was a big deal to be in the movies.

I’m an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.

I once asked my oldest daughter [Julia Marie] if she thought about changing her name in school and she said, “No, I’m a Pacino. That’s my name.”

I had these little babies [my twins] and it gave me something so spectacular, such a feeling – I was so turned on and so excited by them that I wrote a poem.

When you’re acting for a camera, it keeps taking and never giving back.

What’s this thing that gets between us and Shakespeare?

All due respect and trying to be as modest as I can be,

I like women who can cook. That’s first. Love is very important, but you’ve got to have a friend first.

I don’t see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

So that you and the audience are giving to each other, in a sense. It’s an extraordinary thing. It’s wild turf up there.

I went back to the stage because it was my way of dealing with the success I had, my way of coping.

The fruit falls off the tree. You don’t shake it off before it’s ready to fall.

I understand it on a superficial level, but the depth of it just boggles my mind. I think it’s probably the greatest of all speeches ever written.

Forget the career, do the work. If you feel what you are doing is on line and you’re going someplace and you have a vision and you stay with it, eventually things will happen.

I did say to her that I thought that she had a real gift, and it’s a good idea to know that. It’s always good to go with your gift.

The thing is doing it, that’s what it’s all about. Not in the results of it. After all what is a risk? It’s a risk not to take risks. Otherwise, you can go stale and repeat yourself.

I dont think I ever wanted to be a journalist – I was more interested in what comes from being a journalist.

I can’t remember a single occasion when I have been kind to a journalist.

Journalists love to show their compassion.

Start with local press first. Start with people you know. Don’t pitch every journalist.

So, here you are, especially in the Pentagon. Some guy tells you something. He says that’s a national security matter. Well, you’re supposed to tremble and get scared and it never, almost never means the security of the national government.

The whole ‘grunge-girl’ comparisons certainly are the easiest to pick out, and I appreciate that music journalists are rushed.

I had rather be called a journalist than an artist.

It’s silly to say that with a journalist, but sometimes there is not a truth to be found.