Ray Liotta

With any mannerisms or dialogue, you have to be careful you're not just serving yourself. What happens with improving is a lot of times, if you're not in the framework of the script, you're just making everything easier so it fits you.

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

Suddenly playing the charming bad guy was my thing.

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.

I didn't like some of the movies that were coming into me.

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

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

I didn't start acting until I was in college, which was in the 70's.

This is the profession I chose, and you really learn to save your money because you never know how it's going to go, but you still want to get out there and work.

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!'

It would be nice to do a movie where I didn't have to choke the girl to get her.

There are a lot of actors who will watch the monitors. They'll do a scene, and then the director will look back to see if he got whatever he wanted. I just find it odd to sit there and watch yourself.

I think people like watching edgy things.

I get up at six to work out. I've done it since school, it's always been part of my life. It's a good way to take the edge off. I like getting up early; I've got a daughter, I'm a single dad.

Not all journalists are really journalists. They ask such stupid questions sometimes, especially the newer ones, and because... these people can't tell if you're joking around, you just can't have any sense of humour; you really can't.

My dad said, 'Go to college and take whatever you want.' So, I went to the University of Miami. When I got up to the line at registration, I saw that you had to take math and history. I said, 'There's no way I'm taking math and history.' And right next to it was the line for the drama department.

I love acting. It's an interesting challenge to make something that doesn't exist appear like it's happening, and to do it in a real way.

I played pretend games as a kid, army, whatever, but I never wanted to be an actor.

The independent-minded movies - it's always an uphill battle to get them made and seen. You do what you can, and go out there after and try to tell people about it, but at the end of the day, that's all you can do.

I think I had a kind of pause for insight in my 20s when I wasn't in a relationship and my career wasn't going the way I wanted it to go. I had time for reflection then.

I talk to my friends and, you know, they all seem to get relationships that aren't right. You kind of want someone who is not at your beck and call but loves the idea of being in a relationship and what that entails.

I'm emotionally in tune with my feelings and what people mean to me, and I have no trouble saying it and relating to it.

I feel I've done everything late in life. Got married late, and I didn't do my first movie until I was 31. But in this crazy business, you never know what's going to happen. Maybe after 20 years of making movies I'll become an overnight sensation.

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

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