Quotes By Vincent D..Onofrio

Our show is different, because it's not about law and order, it's about psychology, the intent of somebody.

When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave.

People who are extremely inside their head, like he was, are caught in a neurosis that goes round and round. Then something will hook them and take them to their end and they can't control it.

I'm a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after 'Mystic Pizza', not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route.

My partner Dan Ireland wants me to direct, and I read a lot of scripts - some good enough that I could see myself. But then it's like, so what? Who cares? Let someone else direct it.

To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.

At our best, it's a good experience but we do 22 episodes a year, so there are some clunkers.

It doesn't need to be a number one show, it just needs to be good.

Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had.

I'll be working the rest of my life because I'm a character actor and don't have to worry about box office.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

Evil changes everybody!

All of us are trying to achieve 100 percent in our work. That's all we struggle to do. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die. It's that struggle to achieve 100 percent, that's where our performance lies, that's what the audience gets. They get the struggle.

And I have been able to establish this sort of decent reputation as being a decent character actor.

So a failed movie is not going to ruin my career.

When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.

The Whole Wide World is the first movie I've ever produced.

Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.

The search for the truth is not for the faint hearted.

It doesn't need to be a No 1 show, it just needs to be good.

It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.

Then I did Mystic Pizza, just to do something I wasn't fat in.

I want every episode to feel like we still haven't done this right yet.

And then, as the years went on, I just kept moving along, busting into doors and getting roles, until I started to actually believe that what these other people were saying was true.

But the one thing that I did do was establish myself as a good actor.

I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.

So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they'd seen my work in Full Metal Jacket.

I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art.

The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters.

They were all interested in what I was going to do, because I'd never worked in televsion before.