Steve Zissis Quotes

You try to find the romance in the struggle, or at least that's what you keep telling yourself. But you talk to successful actors, and the struggle always is what they miss the most.

Being on a major label is like living at your friend's parent's mansion: It's a lot nicer than any apartment we could afford, and the fridge is always full of food.

Any degree of success or achievement for me is only ever a relief. My version of getting carried away is: 'Mmm, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.'

This whole thing about winning and losing is muddy waters. But I can remember, as a young actor, just walking around this city and not being able to get arrested.

My career has suddenly started to be the one that I'd always wanted, not in terms of level of success, but in terms of - and this is what I've been banging on about - playing different parts in different media.

To establish yourself as a leading man, you're shooting for the smallest point on the target, and you get a lot of judgment thrown at you. It takes a lot for them to get past everything and just watch your art and what you're doing.

And then, as the years went on, I just kept moving along, busting into doors and getting roles, until I started to actually believe that what these other people were saying was true.

You just hope that you will get the opportunity to do what you love and pay your bills, and that is being a success as an actor.

I'm still waiting to hit it big. But there was the moment when I didn't have to work at the restaurant anymore, which is the milestone for every actor. When your job is just to be an actor and not to have to do anything else.

Without my music, no doors would have opened, so I am forever grateful, and I am always going to be singing. But yeah, when the other doors open, why not walk through?

I was never a struggling actor, for which I feel very blessed.

I left Venezuela looking for something bigger. I wanted to be an international star.

I really feel all my adult life has been spent in that little black box. If a wonderful part on TV came along I would do it. But I don't want to do a recurring role. It would just be my luck that the thing would be successful. I'm old enough now and also secure enough financially that I really only want to do what I want to do.

I've been lucky, I've had movies that made a lot of money, so I don't feel like I have to kill every time out. I don't want that pressure. I don't need it.

All those days of waiting on tables until I could get a role on Broadway, all that time going to school taking lessons, and all those years of being a nobody following a dream-and now here it is.

I never thought I'd be making a living off of acting - it's still kind of a shock for my family and friends to see my face on TV every Wednesday night.

You're rejected 10 to 20 times for every part you are going to get.

A lot of producers cookie cut movies one after another, but I'll be a little more careful, and have the opportunity to be, because I have the acting career to subsidize the producing.

I've never had a career of that kind of box office power. I've always learned the hard way.

I have made a promise to myself that I will have no limitations as an actor. I have realised I have to pay attention to the commercials or the business aspect of cinema, but deep inside, I am purely an artiste.

There are a lot of actors in the world, there's a small number that actually get to work as actors, and there is a tiny group of actors that are celebrated in the way that I have been. I feel incredibly lucky.

Acting never was about the money for me... Maybe in 10 years, I'll be able to appreciate the fact that I am financially stable and independent and I don't have to make bad choices. I can be very picky.

I'm used to adversity and working really well in difficult situations. It was hard for me to accept the success.

When I first set out to do it, I wanted to be a working actor, and now it seems like it's superseded even my dreams.

Generally, achieving goals... which in many cases means winning... is really the ultimate in this life we live in.