Ray Liotta quotes:

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!'

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.

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.

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.

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 humour; you really can't.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

It is more difficult to maintain friendship with people that you work with five minutes ago, than from many years ago. For some reason we've just remained friends, we talk to each other all the time. For a while, for years, we spent New Year together.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I think people like watching edgy things.

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

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.

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.

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.

I would like to do a lot more of it, I feel comfortable with it and basically it's all in the writing. I'm not a personality type actor, I need a good script in order to be funny, but it's definitely something that I like doing.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A stare is really nothing more than what you're thinking inside.

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

I do certain things that, maybe, nobody else knows why I'm doing. But it's all - it all has to do with - to grow as an actor.

I just - you know, some people just have some very full laughter - full of joy - and have no shame or fear of letting that out.

I just know what it's like being an East Coast person, being from New Jersey.

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

I like to think that even with some of the more intense ones sometimes there is humour in there, you try to make a complete human being, whether the guy is good or bad.

I never, ever wanted to be an actor.

I really believe that you never stop learning.

I think drug movies free the director to make intense films

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

If I think something's funny, I think it's funny.

If you start acting and you start thinking about and worrying about what other people are going to say about it, you'll never really fully commit to who it is and what it is that you're playing.

I'm a big believer that the script is your bible.

I'm amused by a lot of things. I love humor. I'm constantly joking around.

I'm not a proponent of people watching a movie, and then going out and doing something bad. People have been doing bad things, well before movies.

In college, I started out doing musicals and Shakespeare

It came time to go to college. My dad said, go wherever you want. Take whatever you want. He just really believed in getting out and being exposed to different things.

I've done a few movies where I really liked the project, but I wasn't sure about the director, and I still did it and my instinct was right, in the beginning. Even though it was a good story, the guy still didn't really know what he was doing.

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

Just by the nature of what we do it kind of gets you out of the regularities of life. Playing pretend for a living is a good way to have a release and playing make believe is a good way of getting away from it and doing things like this. So I think work gets me away from life.

Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money... I used to love traveling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!

My career has been up and down, and I like it much better being up.

Suddenly playing the charming bad guy was my thing.

The best way to learn anything is through a movie, because you have so much time to do it and you have great people teaching you.

The more you think about something, the more important it becomes, the more important it is to you, and the more important it will become to the audience.

The script - and a good one - tells you everything that you need to know.

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. But if you can be objective, I can see how it's really useful as a tool, especially if you're doing something physical.

There's a personal side to me of challenges as an actor that I like to take on myself.

To me, being a gangster was better than being president of the United States.

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. It's much more interesting and challenging to go to it, rather than it coming to you.

You know, I started out really hot out of the box. Then I've definitely had and up-and-down career. And when things started cooling off again, it frustrated me.

You want people to watch what you're doing.

You're always - you're constantly learning things if you're the type of person who stays open and current.