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.

Italian-Americans are not the Mafia.

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

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.

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

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.

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.