I mean, I understand that, I guess, it brings people to the movie, but I hope that I get really, really huge so that I don`t have to do this anymore.

So I decided to form a production company with my wife and our partner Diane.

I know when I go to a movie I want to experience something, whether to laugh, to cry, to feel bad.

I didn`t like some of the movies that were coming into me.

Today some actors get a little full of themselves about what they`re doing.

Okay there was an edginess to the guy, but he never killed anyone. All he did was beat up the guy who was harming girlfriend. And a major point in the film was how he couldn`t be made because he was part Irish and part Italian. But then they also say I`m Italian and I`m mostly Scottish with a bit of Italian. So, it doesn`t track sometimes. - on preconceptions about him based on his role in Goodfellas (1990)

When I found out Cusack was involved, I liked that a lot.

Not like Chinese food, where you eat it and then you feel hungry an hour later.

I think that if you can achieve a balance, then you appease a lot of yourself and your career and what it takes to maintain in this business for a while.

I was on a soap opera before that for three years, where I was the nicest guy on earth.

In college, I started out doing musicals and Shakespeare.

When I read Copland, I really wanted Stallone`s part.

Well, for Blow I had to age from 20 to 60, starting out in shape and then later putting on fat pads.

I think drug movies free the director to make intense films.

I was looking to become more proactive with my career because I wasn`t crazy with some of the scripts I was getting - this was before Blow and Hannibal - so I decided to start my own production company.

Something Wild was my first movie. I was in an acting class and on a soap opera for three-and-a-half years in New York - I moved to L.A. at 25 and nothing was really going on for like a five-year period. I was still in acting class, I was in class all through Goodfellas actually, and I talked to some of the guys and they said, Are you up for this movie, Something Wild?" and I said, "No." But I decided I really wanted to be up for it even though [Jonathan] Demme had already narrowed it down to three people. I`d been to college with Melanie Griffith`s then-husband Steven Bauer and I called her up and said, "y`know, can you get me in and I felt weird about it, but here I am, thirty years old and I haven`t done anything yet and I`d read the script and felt like I could do that as well as anyone out there so why not me?" She got me in, she insisted that Jonathan see me, and it just worked out with me." - On landing Something Wild.

I wasn`t crazy about the way things were going. I wanted to be a little more proactive with my career instead of waiting for something to come to me, so I formed a production company with my wife [Michelle Grace] and a partner, Diane Nabatoff, and changed agents - I really just wanted to clean house and start fresh. The first script I got was Narc and I really responded to it; it reminded me of a 70s type movie, I really liked the characters, I didn`t anticipate the ending. I wanted to go that way and really get proactive with my career - take some control in it and redirect it in a direction that I liked. - On Narc.

You don`t do anything thinking that it`s going to stick.

People have all these preconceptions about me. Whereas if you look at the roles, Henry Hill was the nicest guy in Goodfellas! I was a nice guy too in the comedy Heartbreakers. And I was a really sweet father to Johnny Depp in Blow!

My wife read Narc as well and was really into it.

It`s the oily skin. It gives you zits when you are a teenager, but then it doesn`t wrinkle as you get older. [on why he looks a lot younger]

I`m getting older, I wanted to have that opportunity to play someone who goes from his twenties to someone dying of cancer in his sixties.

The Rat Pack was the piece that really kicked me out of that little funk that I was in and then Ted called me up and asked me if I wanted to be the dad in Blow.

I think people like watching edgy things.

Nothing. It`s just make-believe. I don`t think it`s good to personalize it. If you do, it`s limiting. The actors that do personalize it are the ones that always seem the same in every movie they do. I don`t really look at it in any kind of deep psychological way that I learn something about myself. Aside from taking up the acting challenges, I`m really glad I took on the challenge of playing Sinatra, as scary as it was. I learned somewhat about myself - that I could do it and I knew what was bothering me - the fears that I had. - On what he learns about himself through the characters he plays.

(when asked why he did the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City") "For the money."

You could just do independent movies, but I like bigger kind of studio movies, at least some of them.

You know, it was a small, independent movie and with Paramount becoming involved, it was obviously a good thing, but you can`t put a round peg in a square hole.

So, you need to balance it out with bigger and smaller movies.

I wanted to go that way and really get proactive with my career - take some control in it and redirect it in a direction that I liked.

Some movies you go to and you spend a lot of money between popcorn, parking, or the movie itself, and I really feel that this is worth its money.

Bad guys stand out in people`s minds. If you think about De Niro or Pacino, you`re not going to stay Stanley and Iris, you are not going to say Author! Author! Even with Brando, you are going to say The Godfather or Street Car. It is the edgier characters that are remembered. That`s my rationalization.

The first script I got was Narc and I really responded to it; it reminded me of a `70s type movie, I really liked the characters, I didn`t anticipate the ending.

Suddenly playing the charming bad guy was my thing.

I just finished Narc, which was a really heavy duty, raw, independent.

I`ve never stolen, I never did anything.

As soon as I became proactive in producing my own stuff, I started getting other roles.

[on his most challenging role] Probably The Rat Pack (1998) (TV), taking on Sinatra. That was uh, very intimidating. I didn`t know that much about him. I`m not an imitator. You know, to do him without going into caricature was harder than maybe what [the others had to do]. Sammy has a certain pattern, and Dean had a certain pattern, Frank was just so much more raw. I didn`t think I look like him; I had to sing the songs. I mean, I`m really glad I did it, but at first, it was just terrifying for months. All I did was listen, watch, or read about Sinatra.

I`ve only been in one fight in my whole life... in 7th grade, yet everyone thinks I`m a maniac.

What I really am is a homebody. I was a homebody even before I had a family. My days are filled with home stuff.

It would be nice to do a movie where I didn`t have to choke the girl to get her.

"I only did it to get my foot in the door and because you never know what can happen." - On his first film, The Lonely Lady.