Ray Liotta

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

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.

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.

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

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

Mafia guys are all just insecure people who want their money. They're like little seven-year old kids when they don't get their way. I knew guys like that growing up in New Jersey.

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

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.

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

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

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

I haven't seen about half the movies I've done. You know, you've got to make a living, but some I don't get a good vibe with.

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

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

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

In college, I started out doing musicals and Shakespeare.

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.

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!'

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

A stare is really nothing more than what you're thinking inside.

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.

You don't do anything thinking that it's going to stick.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

I think people like watching edgy things.

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

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 think drug movies free the director to make intense films.

Acting is playing pretend, playing a children's game at an adult level, but with children's rules. It's fun to play bad guys. I've never been in a fight in my life, so it's fun to play something that's different.