Chazz Palminteri Quotes

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices you make will shape your life forever.

My mom was Sicilian, my dad was Sicilian. Mom was a great cook, but all the women were.

The key is you have to keep doing the right thing. Do the right thing and stay around long enough, and you'll keep getting parts. And if you don't, you write your own parts, which I'm lucky to do. It's like anything else: you get hot, you get cold, then you get hot again. You just keep working.

My mother and father told me I was god. I was a good Italian boy who hung out with the same four guys. I was a little god.

Yeah, I like to gamble.

My father always said, 'The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.'

When you feel good about the work you're doing, that's what's important, not the budget or anything like that. If you're happy about the actors you're working with, that's what's important.

Doing voiceover, they bring you in, you're wearing jeans, you haven't shaved, you're wearing a baseball cap, and you go in, do it, make a lot of money and go home. It's fun. I enjoy doing it very much. So that's been really fun for me.

The way I pick movies is, first, if the script is any good. Then, if the script is good, who else is in it, the director, the producer, all that. If you have all that, there's a chance the movie will be great. If the script isn't right, or the director or cast isn't right, you've got no shot in hell.

I had a 90-minute one-man show. I performed it and my life just exploded. Everything - my life just changed. Every writer, director, producer, studio head, movie star - they all wanted it. It was the hottest property since 'Rocky.'

I came here knowing nobody. I worked clubs as a singer and even the doors a few times before I landed some TV roles.

Please, if you're making a movie, start out with a good script, at least! Please!

I like playing roulette, I like dice. I grew up with gamblers.

I thought that if no one was going to give me a great part - and it was very difficult to break into film, obviously - then I'd write one myself.

I love people who just started making movies - first-timers, second-timers. They take chances.

Mental violence is as bad as physical violence. You don't see that very often in movies, so it was a good subject to tackle.

I'm very proud of being Italian-American, but people don't realize that the mafia is just this aberration. The real community is built on the working man, the guy who's the cop, the fireman, the truck driver, the bus driver.

Oh, great reviews are the worst. They mislead you more than the bad ones, because they only fuel your ego. Then you only want another one, like potato chips or something, and the best thing you get is fat and bloated. I'd rather just refuse, thanks.

I never worried about becoming typecast. People have said that to me, but I never worried about it. As long as the part is three dimensional, I'm okay with it, whether the role is to play the heavy, the cop.

I've always been successful. Now I'm famous and successful.

Italian-Americans are not the Mafia.