What I've Learned

Esquire Magazine (January 2003)

• I like it when interviews are brief. Are we done yet?

• Some people say, "New York's a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." I say that about other places.

• There's no such thing as not being afraid.

• I didn't have a problem with rejection, because when you go into an audition, you're rejected already. There are hundreds of other actors. You're behind the eight ball when you go in there.

• The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying—even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear.

• When I'm directing a great dramatic scene, part of me is saying, "Thank God I don't have to do that." Because I know how fucking hard it is to act. It's the middle of the night. It's freezing. You gotta do this scene. You gotta get it up to get to that point. And yet, as a director, you've got to get the actors to that point. It's hard either way.

• As you get older, the more complicated things get. It's almost therapeutic to be doing simple things with the kids.

• If you don't go, you'll never know.

From films

• They're all animals anyway. All the criminals come out at night. Whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
  • As Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver

• You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?
  • As Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver

• Better to be a king for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime.
  • As Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy

• In the casino the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all.
  • As Sam "Ace" Rothstein in Casino (film)

• Sam : Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you.
  Vincent: Who taught you ?
  Sam : I don't remember. That's the second thing they teach you.

• Sam: Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution or you're just part of the landscape
  • As Sam in Ronin

Unsourced

• I don't like to watch my own movies— I fall asleep in my own movies.

• It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.

• One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price. I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.

• There is a certain combination of anarchy and discipline in the way I work.

• You'll have time to rest when you're dead.