Quotes from Vincent D'Onofrio

Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.

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

When you look at people, you should look at more than what you see on the surface; you should try to find a soul.

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.

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

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

My 22-year-old [son] can see everything I've done, but my 15-year-old hasn't been able to see anything, at all. But yeah, I hope I'm a super cool dad.

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

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.

When you're a child, you're able to assimilate so easily into any situation. You even start talking like the people you're around. I wasn't conscious that I was so good at that until I started to truly feel like an actor.

The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.

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

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

I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.

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

When I played Robert Howard in 'The Whole Wide World', I was struggling with it. There's this dual thing where you feel real good about being able to play this juicy part, and then there's constant shame: 'Who am I to pretend to know who this guy was? Who am I to represent this guy for people who never knew him?'

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

I read Spider-Man, and that's how I knew about Wilson Fisk.

No, I knew when I was doing theater in New York that this was what I was supposed to be doing.

I learned a lot from Dick Wolf. I'll always remember playing that character because it was such a good character. It was great to be able to be a character like that for television. I think the thing that I'll bring from the whole experience, the whole 10 years, is I had never been interested in the television business before.

I never was happy with the job I did in 'Ed Wood.'

I guess I say this for younger actors out there: you have to be brave, and you have to be ready to fail, and that's the only way you can be unique. So when a director is confident enough in what they're doing, and they allow their actors to be brave and bring in stuff, the more likely it's going to work out okay.

What kind of recognition do I deserve? I don't deserve any recognition.

This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn't settle well with me at all.