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

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

Relationships are interesting to me. Not just between men and women, but fathers and sons, brothers and sisters and friends.

- Steve Buscemi

I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it.

- 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 was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.

- Steve Buscemi

All the roles I play, I don't see any of my roles in films that they're typically leading men.

- Steve Buscemi

I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up.

- 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

It doesn't matter what part I play, I try and commit myself 100 percent.

- Steve Buscemi

It doesn't matter to me what the genre is.

- Steve Buscemi

Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.

- 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

I just like playing interesting, complex, complicated characters. I like films that also have an element of humor.

- 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

I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.

- Steve Buscemi

My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.

- 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

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

I usually get freaked out if I'm in a situation where a lot of people recognise me at once.

- Steve Buscemi