I never pursued Hollywood banging my drum, because I was never in a film big enough to do that.
— Armand Assante
I've worked for 27 years nonstop in theater and films. That's a lot of work.
It's a blessing and a curse. But it's not always the best situation to be in. As a profession, I don't recommend acting at all.
I don't champion the idea of being in a Hollywood movie. I never had fun in one of them.
I go out there and make a fool of myself. It's inevitable.
Maybe you don't work for seven months a year, but you'll work again. It may be a piece of garbage, so you wear hip boots.
My dream as a youngster was to be like Olivier. To be a great stage actor. To be a great Shakespearean actor. To me that is the Olympics of acting.
I've got the best deal on Earth. Where else can I sin and know that I'm forgiven for it?
I do not want to act unless I have a a great intimacy with the people I'm working with.
The whole industry is so screwed up by economics. It's disgusting to me.
You love what you do, you are cursed with it, and then you get known for being cursed with it.
The Italian gangster thing has become a form of the modern-day Western.
Literature is air, and I'm suffocating in mediocrity.
I live a very quiet life, although I'm very urban and a diehard New Yorker.
Acting is a total physical, emotional sensation.
I never pursued a career relentlessly.
I've brought my daughters all over the world-they travel with me. I drag them out of school just to keep the relationship. When I'm home I'm a big-time daddy.
I stopped courting Hollywood a long time ago.
