Robert De Niro

Time goes on. So whatever you're going to do, do it. Do it now. Don't wait.

I spent lunchtime in a grave during the filming of 'Bloody Mama.' When you're younger, you feel that's what you need to do to help you stay in character. When you get older, you become more confident and less intense about it - and you can achieve the same effect.

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you.

One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price.

You learned the two greatest things in life, never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.

I don't like to watch my own movies - I fall asleep in my own movies.

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors.

I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don't be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.

I think Hollywood has a class system. The actors are like the inmates, but the truth is they're running the asylum.

I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There's no place like New York. It's the most exciting city in the world now. That's the way it is. That's it.'

Auditions are like a gamble. Most likely you won't get the part, but if you don't go, you'll never know if you could've got it.

I think it's important to have had at least a few years of obscurity, where people treat you like everybody else.

When you make a drama, you spend all day beating a guy to death with a hammer, or what have you. Or, you have to take a bite out of somebody's face. On the other hand, with a comedy, you yell at Billy Crystal for an hour, and you go home.

It's important not to indicate. People don't try to show their feelings, they try to hide them.

Italy has changed. But Rome is Rome.

The talent is in the choices.

I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known. Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best.

There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself.

The director respects what they've hired you for and chosen you for: to do the part and respect what you're doing.

I love to find new people. It's not for the sake of their being new; it's because if you find someone who perfectly fits a part, that's such a great thing.

My mother worked for a woman, Maria Ley-Piscator, who with her husband founded the Dramatic Workshop, which was connected to the New School. My mother did proofreading and typing and stuff or her, and as part of her payment, I was able to take acting classes there on Saturdays when I was 10.

You'll have time to rest when you're dead.

There is a certain combination of anarchy and discipline in the way I work.

When you feel that you cant fight it you just go for it. When it comes to the arts passion should always trump common sense.

Movies are hard work. The public doesn't see that. The critics don't see it. But they're a lot of work. A lot of work.

If it's the right chair, it doesn't take too long to get comfortable in it.

I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.

Good directors can bring certain things out of you, with their intensity or gentleness or sensitivity or understanding. They can make an actor feel he can do no wrong.

If it's a very emotional scene, you're kind of relieved when you've done it, kind of spent. And there are times when you can be rattled, certain characters if they're hyper, that can carry over, the residue of that. But I try to leave it on the set.

You learned the two greatest thing in life, never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.