When I was 17, I was told I had the choice of enlisting in the Navy or going to jail, so I spent the next three years in the Navy.

- Seymour Cassel

With independent film, simply because they don't have the money to make a big-budget film, they're forced to make a story that's important to them, that they would like to see on film, a personal story that people can relate to, about people, where you can see the love of the characters.

- Seymour Cassel

The whole idea of a festival to me is that filmmakers get to interact. You see someone strolling, you get to meet them and tell them you like their work, you admire their story.

- Seymour Cassel

Many people came out and said, 'Boy I'd love to make a film that way.' Well, borrow some money, get some people together - you can get people to work for nothing, just treat them right, treat them as human beings, not stars, give them all an equal share, make them feel a part of what they're doing. There's no big secret to it.

- Seymour Cassel

It doesn't matter how beautifully a film is photographed. The acting tells your story. It's what people relate to. If you don't believe the characters, it doesn't work.

- Seymour Cassel

If you're an actor, and you're selfish and not strong, it's difficult to maintain a good personal life or a solid career, and I was selfish and had a lot of anger that went way back.

- Seymour Cassel

I've had people ask me to come and work for them. I went to Vienna and did three scenes in a movie for a guy that I met at a retrospective of Cassavetes films. It's a great way to travel, to meet people, to see different countries and cultures.

- Seymour Cassel

I was born in Detroit, then shortly after I was born, I went on the road with my mother, who performed with Minsky's, a variety show that toured around the U.S. doing five shows a day.

- Seymour Cassel

I was a little ham and was a very open kid, probably because I was around adults all the time. That also forced me to grow up fast, and I learned at an early age about how people lie and deceive each other.

- Seymour Cassel

I always go in with the feeling that I'm gonna have a good time in what I'm doing. I entertain myself when I perform. If I do that, then I can see the other performers enjoying my character.

- Seymour Cassel

All I ever cared about was actors - toughest job in this business.

- Seymour Cassel

The people who know my work like my work. And that's great.

- Seymour Cassel

'Shadows' wasn't so difficult to get made.

- Seymour Cassel

My mother worked in the old Minsky's troupe, which toured the country in the golden age of burlesque theatre.

- Seymour Cassel

It's all performing; that's what we do in life. We talk, we look, and we hear, and we listen. Your life is a performance.

- Seymour Cassel

Independent film is film that has thought in it. There's no independent thought in studio films. It's collective thought.

- Seymour Cassel

I wait for something good or something that will be fun. But they've got to pay me if they want me to work.

- Seymour Cassel

I am a performer; that's what I like to do.

- Seymour Cassel

As a kid, I remember wearing a checkered suit and appearing on-stage in the routines worked out by the 'baggy pants' comedians.

- Seymour Cassel