“I was really young, just playing with puppets a lot and doing all the voices and acting it out - normal kid stuff. But then I'd hear my mother talking about it to her relatives, marveling at it as if it was something unique. And it made me realize, 'Oh, maybe I do have a talent for something.'”
“Growing up, yeah, I had a magic kit with learn tricks and learn card tricks, but I was never... I used to watch whatever magic special was on as a kid, but then, it's not that I lost interest, but to be a magician, you really, it's really hard work. Learning lines is hard enough; learning sleight of hand, that's real practice.”
“There's a certain type of character that you can't help but come in contact with growing up and living in Brooklyn and Long Island. A certain mixture of moxie, heart, and a wise guy sense of humor.”
“The thrill of performing - that's something that hasn't changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience - it's the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins' birthday party.”
“I could never have imagined the films I've done and the people I've worked with when I was starting out; I certainly did not have a career path.”
“Every day's an adventure when I step out of my door. That's why I usually wear a hat and keep my head low.”
“My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.”
“Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.”
“I just like playing interesting, complex, complicated characters. I like films that also have an element of humor.”
“I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up. The comedians by nature weren't very - I mean, they were sociable, but they hung out in cliques, and it's very hard to get accepted; lots of competition.”