Every day’s an adventure when I step out of my door. That’s why I usually wear a hat and keep my head low.
Steve Buscemi
My favorite review described me as the cinematic equivalent of junk mail. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds like a dig.
Steve Buscemi
The thrill of performing – that’s something that hasn’t changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience – it’s the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins’ birthday party.
Steve Buscemi
I was really young, just playing with puppets a lot and doing all the voices and acting it out – normal kid stuff. But then I’d hear my mother talking about it to her relatives, marveling at it as if it was something unique. And it made me realize, ‘Oh, maybe I do have a talent for something.’
Steve Buscemi
There’s a certain type of character that you can’t help but come in contact with growing up and living in Brooklyn and Long Island. A certain mixture of moxie, heart, and a wise guy sense of humor.
Steve Buscemi
By nature, I think I am a pretty private person, and that is what is hard even doing interviews for films that I really love doing, because in some ways, it diminishes the experience that I had.
Steve Buscemi
When I was in pre-production for Trees Lounge, I was hearing the cinematographer talking with the production designer about colours and this and that, and feeling like I was losing control.
Steve Buscemi
They’re not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
Steve Buscemi
My dad had a temper. I have a temper. Most people I know have a temper. And I think it comes out mostly with your family. I don’t think it’s unique to the Buscemis, but it’s something I’ve been able to tap into when I play certain roles.
Steve Buscemi
Whenever you do something that is in a continuous take, and something that we’re not used to doing, because it was all in the details of if you don’t make one move seem natural, it can give away all of it.
Steve Buscemi
To me, it doesn’t really matter how big the part is as long as the part is important to the story.
Steve Buscemi
The first movie I had a featured role in was Parting Glances.
Steve Buscemi
Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.
Steve Buscemi
It doesn’t matter what part I play, I try and commit myself 100 percent.
Steve Buscemi
I had a magic kit. I never really followed through on it, but I had my phase of wanting to do it, sure.
Steve Buscemi
In the beginning, it wasn’t even a question of deciding I’m going to do independent film and not commercial films – I wasn’t being offered any commercial films, and there wasn’t an independent scene.
Steve Buscemi
I did stand-up. I loved George Carlin and Steve Martin.
Steve Buscemi
My greatest hope was to get discovered as a comedian and get on a sitcom.
Steve Buscemi
I didn’t really like the aloneness of doing stand-up.
Steve Buscemi
My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.
Steve Buscemi
The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
Steve Buscemi
It doesn’t matter so much where the material comes from, as long as it’s good.
Steve Buscemi
Directing television is really hard – it’s so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.
Steve Buscemi
All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.
Steve Buscemi
Communication is the key, and it’s one thing I had to learn-to talk to the actors. I was so involved with the visual and technical aspects that I would forget about the actors.
Steve Buscemi
It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I started acting.
Steve Buscemi
I was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.
Steve Buscemi
I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do movies. That was for serious actors.
Steve Buscemi
I think all comics borrow from each other. Only a few have an original voice, and I wasn’t one of them. In the end, I couldn’t figure out who to steal from, so I stopped doing it.
Steve Buscemi
I’m terrible at story and structure, but I’m not so bad at writing dialogue.
Steve Buscemi
Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters.
Steve Buscemi
What was frustrating about Armageddon was the time I spent not doing anything. It was a big special effects film, and I wasn’t crazy about pretending I was in outer space. It feels ridiculous.
Steve Buscemi
I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.
Steve Buscemi
The trend now is to shoot in Canada because it’s cheaper, and they don’t care what the location is.
Steve Buscemi
With Animal Factory you’d think that because it’s mostly interiors, you could shoot it anywhere. So we shot this in Philadelphia, and we had the cooperation of the prison system.
Steve Buscemi
I talked with Quentin about where the character came from, and he told me Kansas City. I don’t know how somebody talks from Kansas City, so I made him from New York.
Steve Buscemi
It doesn’t matter to me what the genre is.
Steve Buscemi
I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.
Steve Buscemi
I usually get freaked out if I’m in a situation where a lot of people recognise me at once.
Steve Buscemi
Trees Lounge is based on my own life. Both my parents like the movie. My father, of course, thinks it’s a masterpiece.
Steve Buscemi
I don’t tend to think of these characters as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don’t fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.
Steve Buscemi
I could never have imagined the films I’ve done and the people I’ve worked with when I was starting out; I certainly did not have a career path.
Steve Buscemi
I like character-driven stuff. It doesn’t matter, the size of the part.
Steve Buscemi
I always find that it’s when a script is not detailed, then I have to do more work as an actor.
Steve Buscemi
I’ve never had a grand plan. I’ve only just tried to keep open to many different possibilities, have fun and work with people who are passionate about what they do.
Steve Buscemi
I never know what I’m going to get. A ‘Sopranos’ fan is very different from a ‘Big Lebowski’ fan.
Steve Buscemi
When I was doing stand-up, I was about twenty, and I really think that that’s a little too young. I didn’t have a whole lot of life experience to draw on.
Steve Buscemi
I didn’t really like the aloneness of doing stand-up. The comedians by nature weren’t very – I mean, they were sociable, but they hung out in cliques, and it’s very hard to get accepted; lots of competition.
Steve Buscemi
I’d say that the director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell in ‘In the Soup’. It was one of my earliest leading roles, and he gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
Steve Buscemi
When I get cast, I always flip to the end of the script to see if my character gets beaten up or killed.
Steve Buscemi
I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don’t fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.
Steve Buscemi
It’s great working with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Those guys are really funny.
Steve Buscemi