Quotes from Vincent D'Onofrio

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

The only thing I do worry about is that the more films I do the more visible I am going to become as a personality because of press and because of the sheer quantity of films.

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.

With Altman, he does discuss everything with you, but then leaves you to it and gives you full rein and lets you improvise and create a character while the camera is rolling.

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

When I did 'The Cell' - no matter what you think of that movie, because I have my opinions of it too - it was, you know, I still have nightmares from the research that I did. Not from playing the part, just from the research.

It's pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people's first impressions of people are really a big mistake.

I'm not gonna play a part that doesn't instill some kind of fear in me. If I read a part, and suddenly, I'm thinking halfway through, 'I'm not sure I could get away with this,' I think of everything I can think of to keep me from doing it, that's the one I should do.

The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101.

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

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

The thing about Marvel is that they're not - they're into real acting. They're looking for artists that are willing to take chances and are willing to create characters. Even if that character has been around for years and years in comic books, they still are depending on us to create something and take it somewhere else.

I've never tried to be something I'm not.

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

Doing 'Law & Order' for so long, my fan base was, like, men and women my age, and then doing 'Daredevil', my whole audience has changed. It's cool.

Until I got 'Full Metal Jacket,' I was doing Off-Off-Broadway plays with three people in the audience.

Frank Miller and David Mack are incredible artists.

The minute you start feeling like you've got it down, you know what you're doing, you're dead in the water.

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.

When you're acting, it should be the most important thing that's going on. But when you're not, leave it alone.

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.

Look, all you can do when you find your niche is go with it.

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.

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.