Ray Liotta Quotes

1. What I really am is a homebody. I was a homebody even before I had a family. My days are filled with home stuff.  



2. The independent-minded movies - it's always an uphill battle to get them made and seen. You do what you can, and go out there after and try to tell people about it, but at the end of the day, that's all you can do.

3. (on his first film "The Lonely Lady") I only did it to get my foot in the door and because you never know what can happen.

4. Today some actors get a little full of themselves about what they're doing.

5. I haven't seen about half the movies I've done. You know, you've got to make a living, but some I don't get a good vibe with.

6. Well, for "Blow" I had to age from 20 to 60, starting out in shape and then later putting on fat pads.

7. (on his most challenging role) Probably "The Rat Pack" (1998) (TV), taking on Sinatra. That was uh, very intimidating. I didn't know that much about him. I'm not an imitator. You know, to do him without going into caricature was harder than maybe what (the others had to do). Sammy has a certain pattern, and Dean had a certain pattern, Frank was just so much more raw. I didn't think I look like him; I had to sing the songs. I mean, I'm really glad I did it, but at first, it was just terrifying for months. All I did was listen, watch, or read about Sinatra.

8. I get up at six to work out. I've done it since school, it's always been part of my life. It's a good way to take the edge off. I like getting up early; I've got a daughter, I'm a single dad.

9. Mafia guys are all just insecure people who want their money. They're like little seven-year old kids when they don't get their way. I knew guys like that growing up in New Jersey.

10. I've never stolen, I never did anything.

11. You know, it was a small, independent movie and with Paramount becoming involved, it was obviously a good thing, but you can't put a round peg in a square hole.

12. What I really am is a homebody. I was a homebody even before I had a family. My days are filled with home stuff.

13. The first script I got was "Narc" and I really responded to it; it reminded me of a '70s type movie, I really liked the characters, I didn't anticipate the ending.

14. I just finished "Narc", which was a really heavy duty, raw, independent.

15. I was on a soap opera before that for three years, where I was the nicest guy on earth.





16. "The Rat Pack" was the piece that really kicked me out of that little funk that I was in and then Ted called me up and asked me if I wanted to be the dad in "Blow".

17. I feel I've done everything late in life. Got married late, and I didn't do my first movie until I was 31. But in this crazy business, you never know what's going to happen. Maybe after 20 years of making movies I'll become an overnight sensation.

18. Bad guys stand out in people's minds. If you think about De Niro or Pacino, you're not going to stay Stanley and Iris, you are not going to say Author! Author! Even with Brando, you are going to say "The Godfather" or "Street Car". It is the edgier characters that are remembered. That's my rationalization.

19. I know when I go to a movie I want to experience something, whether to laugh, to cry, to feel bad.

20. When I found out Cusack was involved, I liked that a lot.

21. As soon as I became proactive in producing my own stuff, I started getting other roles.

22. (on what he learns about himself through the characters he plays) Nothing. It's just make-believe. I don't think it's good to personalize it. If you do, it's limiting. The actors that do personalize it are the ones that always seem the same in every movie they do. I don't really look at it in any kind of deep psychological way that I learn something about myself. Aside from taking up the acting challenges, I'm really glad I took on the challenge of playing Sinatra, as scary as it was. I learned somewhat about myself - that I could do it and I knew what was bothering me - the fears that I had.  

23. When I read "Copland", I really wanted Stallone's part.

24. Some movies you go to and you spend a lot of money between popcorn, parking, or the movie itself, and I really feel that this is worth its money.

25. I'm getting older, I wanted to have that opportunity to play someone who goes from his twenties to someone dying of cancer in his sixties.




26. I love acting. It's an interesting challenge to make something that doesn't exist appear like it's happening, and to do it in a real way.

27. You could just do independent movies, but I like bigger kind of studio movies, at least some of them.




28. I've only been in one fight in my whole life…in 7th grade, yet everyone thinks I'm a maniac.

29. I played pretend games as a kid, army, whatever, but I never wanted to be an actor.

30. Suddenly playing the charming bad guy was my thing.






31. (on why he looks a lot younger) It's the oily skin. It gives you zits when you are a teenager, but then it doesn't wrinkle as you get older.

32. There are a lot of actors who will watch the monitors. They'll do a scene, and then the director will look back to see if he got whatever he wanted. I just find it odd to sit there and watch yourself.

33. (on landing "Something Wild") "Something Wild" was my first movie. I was in an acting class and on a soap opera for three-and-a-half years in New York - I moved to L.A. at 25 and nothing was really going on for like a five-year period. I was still in acting class, I was in class all through "Goodfellas" actually, and I talked to some of the guys and they said: Are you up for this movie "Something Wild?" and I said: "No." But I decided I really wanted to be up for it even though (Jonathan) Demme had already narrowed it down to three people. I'd been to college with Melanie Griffith's then-husband Steven Bauer and I called her up and said: "y'know, can you get me in and I felt weird about it, but here I am, thirty years old and I haven't done anything yet and I'd read the script and felt like I could do that as well as anyone out there so why not me?" She got me in, she insisted that Jonathan see me, and it just worked out with me. 

34. I think drug movies free the director to make intense films.




35. I think people like watching edgy things.

36. This is the profession I chose, and you really learn to save your money because you never know how it's going to go, but you still want to get out there and work.

37. In college, I started out doing musicals and Shakespeare.


38. He was great. Just a goof ball. I mean that in the best sense of the word. He's just a fun (guy), but we had a blast.

39. (on preconceptions about him based on his role in "Goodfellas") Okay there was an edginess to the guy, but he never killed anyone. All he did was beat up the guy who was harming girlfriend. And a major point in the film was how he couldn't be made because he was part Irish and part Italian. But then they also say I'm Italian and I'm mostly Scottish with a bit of Italian. So, it doesn't track sometimes.

40. You don't do anything thinking that it's going to stick.

41. No question. There's shades of the O.J. trial in this one. The difference in our movie is my guy is completely committed and does everything he can to find out who the bad guy is.




42. With any mannerisms or dialogue, you have to be careful you're not just serving yourself. What happens with improving is a lot of times, if you're not in the framework of the script, you're just making everything easier so it fits you.

43. Not like Chinese food, where you eat it and then you feel hungry an hour later.



44. It would be nice to do a movie where I didn't have to choke the girl to get her.


45. I didn't like some of the movies that were coming into me.

46. I'm emotionally in tune with my feelings and what people mean to me, and I have no trouble saying it and relating to it.

47. Not all journalists are really journalists. They ask such stupid questions sometimes, especially the newer ones, and because…these people can't tell if you're joking around, you just can't have any sense of humor; you really can't.



48. My wife read Narc as well and was really into it.

49. My dad said: "Go to college and take whatever you want." So, I went to the University of Miami. When I got up to the line at registration, I saw that you had to take math and history. I said: "There's no way I'm taking math and history." And right next to it was the line for the drama department.

50. I didn't start acting until I was in college, which was in the 70's.

51. I think that if you can achieve a balance, then you appease a lot of yourself and your career and what it takes to maintain in this business for a while.

52. So I decided to form a production company with my wife and our partner Diane.

53. I was looking to become more proactive with my career because I wasn't crazy with some of the scripts I was getting - this was before "Blow" and "Hannibal - so I decided to start my own production company.

54. So, you need to balance it out with bigger and smaller movies.






55. People have all these preconceptions about me. Whereas if you look at the roles, Henry Hill was the nicest guy in "Goodfellas!" I was a nice guy too in the comedy "Heartbreakers." And I was a really sweet father to Johnny Depp in "Blow!"

56. I think I had a kind of pause for insight in my 20s when I wasn't in a relationship and my career wasn't going the way I wanted it to go. I had time for reflection then.

57. I wanted to go that way and really get proactive with my career - take some control in it and redirect it in a direction that I liked.

58. Acting is playing pretend, playing a children's game at an adult level, but with children's rules. It's fun to play bad guys. I've never been in a fight in my life, so it's fun to play something that's different.


59. (Amanda Plummer was honored as outstanding guest actress in a drama for her appearance on) "Law & Order": Special Victims Unit…ER.

60. (when asked why he did the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City") For the money.

61. I talk to my friends and, you know, they all seem to get relationships that aren't right. You kind of want someone who is not at your beck and call but loves the idea of being in a relationship and what that entails.


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