I had no idea what they were saying in Italian as a child, they spoke too quickly on the radio. But I realized that language was very funny.

When I started really singing I was 17, 18 years old. I used to go around trying to be a singer in the Bronx. My knees would shake but I learned by doing.

For TV I don't think I could have gotten a better part than Uncle Junior because of the intimacy of the character based on David Chase's brilliant writing.

I don't like the way Uncle Junior dresses. He loves it.

I went to Brooklyn College and met this beautiful Jewish girl named Merle, with dark hair, exotic looking and brilliant. So we got married and had three children.

Uncle Junior is a criminal, which makes him a villain, so it makes people want to watch him. My whole life as an actor has been preparing for something like this.

My father was an American who could cuss in Italian and make an aria out of it. It was wonderful to watch. But then again, he was a Gemini. I believe in that stuff.

They would wake me up when I was sleeping, and say sing a song for our friends. I had a sweet voice, I had a nice little tenor voice. God knows what I sang, but my whole family would admire me.

The radio was my big influence. Comedy came from the instinctual feel I had for language.

I had to audition for the part of Jnior, and I wanted the role terribly because I knew it was a great character. This guy is a wonderful, funny, mean old guy.

I enjoyed my grandparents very much. My mother and father would always allow me to stay with them.

Stand firm as surefooted as deer.

A work of art is an exaggeration.

Two polar groups: at one pole we have the literary intellectuals, at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension.

The way to do well is to do well.

It’s fun to be in a place where ridiculous is normal.

In the matter of faith, we have the added weight of hope to that of reason in the convictions which we sustain relating to a future state.

The world says of marriage: A short joy and a long displeasure. But he who understands it finds in it delight, love, and joy without ceasing.

I love theater. Like, every time I go to New York, I see a play.

Life is like a wrestling match- we struggle to fight but we never know that the only side that wins is the one with great love in it.

Always focus on your effort, instead of the results of that effort.