You can’t be afraid to take a chance.

You have to fall in love with the character you’re playing.

I’ve never let success get to my head.

You have to be brave, and you have to be honest with yourself.

I never wanted to be a star; I just wanted to do good work.

I’ve never been afraid to be uncomfortable.

Acting is a craft, not just a job.

Success is what you make of it.

I’m always chasing something new.

I think my best work is yet to come.

You have to embrace the unknown in this business.

There’s no blueprint for success in this business.

Acting is like a puzzle. You have to fit the pieces together.

I don’t talk politics and I don’t talk philosophy or anything like that, but if you look at my work, you might get an expression of me as a person.

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.

The best performances come from the most unlikely places.

The fear of failure is what drives me to succeed.

I’m always thinking about my next project.

A kiss is a lusty dollop of dessert to be served with desire and savored with passion.

A lot of acting is private time.

I think I’m a better actor now than I was 20 years ago.

When I do a role, I become that person. That’s the fun of it.

In this industry, there’s always pressure to perform.

Sometimes what we imagine and the world aren’t different things. Sometimes they are the same exact thing.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete.

I don’t take my career for granted.

My job is to make you believe in what I’m doing.

I’m a fighter, I’ll fight till the end.

Show me a bad script and I will show you a big payday.

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

I have a lot of pride, but I also have humility.

Romantic love can be a lot of crap, though, let me tell you. And it can hurt you.

The World Is Yours.

It turned out that time doesn’t heal the wound, but in its so merciful way, blunts the edges ever so slightly.

My weaknesses… I wish I could come up with something. I’d probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they’re the same thing.

What is success? It’s a matter of perspective.

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

My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After World War II he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn’t know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother.

There was a time in my life when being dishonest with women was the natural way to be. I finally said, “Hey, I have to stop this silliness.

Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie.

The hardest part of acting is letting go of your ego.

My best advice to any young person is, if you want kids, be careful who you have them with. That’s my mantra.

It surprised me, the feeling I got when I won the Oscar for ‘Scent of a Woman.’ It was a new feeling. I’d never felt it. 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.

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

Some of the roles that are challenging are more in theater and TV. In movies, there’s a tendency to cast actors in roles that have been successful for them. It has to pay for itself.

People don’t realize that acting is a collaboration.

Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it.

Shakespeare’s plays are more violent than ‘Scarface.

Freedom, baby, is never having to say you’re sorry.

You need some insecurity if you’re an actor. It keeps the pot boiling. I haven’t yet started to think about retiring. I was shocked when I heard about Paul Newman retiring at age 82. Most actors just fade away like old soldiers.

Being an actor means you have to be vulnerable.

The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul, you don’t have a movie.

Money makes your life easier. If you’re lucky to have it, you’re lucky.

The only thing in this world that gives orders is balls

My grandmother always came to my shows. She was always concerned about the way I dressed – even later on, when I was well known and I supported her.

I don’t want to be a superstar. I want to be a good actor.

Vanity: my favorite sin.

Theater for me at one point was a lifestyle, too.

Love is overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate.

When I was a younger actor, I would try to keep it serious all day. But I have found, later on, that the lighter I am about things when I’m going to do a big scene that’s dramatic and takes a lot out of you, the better off I am when I come to it.

In the end, the character makes you. The character is everything.

Take a look at Israel’s history and you would know who the terrorist is.

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.

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

I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.

Acting is a way of being able to tell the truth, even if you’re lying.

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.

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.

Look, but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, but don’t swallow.

I used to wear disguises, like hats and false beards, just to walk around and avoid attention.

The thing about acting is that it’s not something you can learn. It’s a matter of instinct.

There is no happiness. There is only concentration.

The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I’m talking about.

They say we die twice – once when the last breath leaves our body and once when the last person we know says our name.

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, I could work and get to know him and have him help me with the text, the script and become him. It’s almost like a painter having a model to become.

I’m a student of the world.

I like women who can cook. That’s first. Love is very important, but you’ve got to have a friend first – you want to finally come to a point where you say that the women you’re with is also your friend.

I don’t ever give my opinion. Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life.

If you get all tangled up, just tango on.

All due respect and trying to be as modest as I can be, I am a dancer. But I don’t think I would be on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ mainly because I would be too shy.

I don’t think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You’ve got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition’s an opportunity to have an audience.

You don’t know how much you’ve learned until you start teaching.

I believe in one day at a time; you’ve got TODAY, that’s what you’ ve got.

On any given Sunday you’re gonna win or you’re gonna lose. The point is – can you win or lose like a man?

I’ve often said there’s two kinds of actors. There’s a more gregarious type and the shy type.

Either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.

I don’t like to be called a legend. I think that’s overrated.

All I am is what I’m going after.

I don’t need bodyguards. I’m from the South Bronx.

My first language was shy. It’s only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.

I’m so shy now I wear sunglasses everywhere I go.

The only thing you have in this world is what you can sell.

Be careful how you judge people, most of all friends. You don’t sum up a man’s life in one moment.

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.

It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.

I am who I am, and I can’t change that.

sometimes it’s better to be with the devil u know than the angel u didn’t know.

I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart.

Without coffee something’s missing.