“Man is a little bit better than his reputation, and a little bit worse”

You’ll never be alone if you’ve got a book.

One of the things that made me want to be an actor more than ever was seeing a Chekhov play, “The Sea Gull,” when was 14 in the Bronx.

We live in a world where the more you’re working, the more things you do. It’s a workaday world.

Drinking and smoking grass were a part of my life as far back as I can remember.

Actually, the person I related to was James Dean. I grew up with the Dean thing. Rebel Without A Cause had a very powerful effect on me.

There is only one way of surviving all the early heartbreaks in this business. You must have a sense of humor. And I think it also helps if you are a dreamer. I had my dreams all right. And that is something no one can ever take away.

Early on in my career, I remember running – fleeing – to the theater as a way of coping with all the meshugaas that was going on for me.

Women have always had equal importance onstage, and working with them must have altered my sensibilities.

Their minds, the way in which they se the world is so striking, the way they juxtapose things, the way they can see humor in people. There’s a liberation in that.

When my mother got home from work, she would take me to the movies.

My children can make me feel rejected. They can humble you pretty quick.

I’ve never cared for guns. In fact, when I did ‘Scent of a Woman’ I had to learn how to assemble one.

I don’t feel like a person who takes risks. Yet there’s something within me that must provoke controversy because I find it wherever I go.

Sometimes what we imagine and the world aren’t different things.

I like, for instance, ‘Serpico.’ I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could – I could embody him. I could, you know.

People are always asking me to do Shakespeare – at home, at colleges, on film locations, in restaurants. It’s like playing a piece of music, getting all the notes. It’s great therapy.

Sometimes it also helps you to understand the mentality of the people in the team a bit better.

I think maybe the English don’t want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others – because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

I’ve always been a bit squeamish when it came to that kind of thing.

Learning (Shakespeare’s plays) …in school was a bit of a bore.

In America most everybody who’s Italian is half Italian. Except me. I’m all Italian. I’m mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

When I showed an interest in drumming, he showed me how to mummy-daddy roll and that set me up for a bit.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I never had any specific style.