The one titled "Finnegan's Wake" where Charles Durning plays a retired police detective and they call him back to help solve one of the oldest cases on the books. That was after "Trees Lounge." I don't think I could have directed a "Homicide" episode without having directed a film first. The idea of directing that show was way too intimidating.

Why's that?

TV is tough. It's a tough pace. You might think directing TV would prepare you for directing a film. In my case, it's the other way around. [Laughs] I never would have attempted it had I not directed a film. I mean, you're shooting an hour's show in seven days. That's a lot of material. So you have to be incredibly focused, especially in an ensemble show like that where you're dealing with a lot of actors.

Not that you have to know what you're doing every second, because you do get a lot of help. That's one of the good things about working on a show like "Homicide" or "Oz." You get a well-oiled machine of a crew that's used to doing it. Still, you have to keep up with them. I had such respect for "Homicide," having acted on it in the third season. I could see how fast and furious they worked.

What are your current projects?

Right now, with directing, I'm trying to get off the ground a movie based on "Queer," one of William S. Burroughs' early books. As an actor, there are a few things coming up. There's a film I did with Terry Zwigoff, who directed the documentary "Crumb." It's called "Ghost World," which was written by Terry and Dan Clowes and is based on Clowes' comic book. And I did another film with Tom DeCillo called "Double Whammy," which also stars Dennis Leary.

Also, I just completed a film with actor, director and writer Tim Blake Nelson called "The Grey Zone," which takes place in Auschwitz and deals with the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who were forced to run the crematorium. We shot it in Bulgaria. Nelson re-created part of Auschwitz there. He's in the editing room now with the film.

I play a Hungarian Jew who's the go-between -- between the Polish Jews and the Hungarian Jews. It's a very intense film, and has a really great cast: Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Natasha Lyonne and David Arquette. It's one of the hardest films, emotionally, that I've done.

To go back to Burroughs, I take it you're a fan of his writing?

Yeah, I've been a fan of his work, and I had an opportunity to meet him six weeks before he died. I had a good talk with him and with James Grauerholz, who is the keeper of his estate. They both gave us their blessing to go ahead with the work.

You seem drawn to direct projects with a literary basis.

It's challenging to make a good screenplay out of a well-done book because so much of what makes novels interesting is learning what goes on inside the characters' heads. That doesn't always translate well to a screenplay, obviously.

Are there any other novelists you'd like to take a crack at someday?

I've always been a fan of Jim Thompson, but I think his work is especially hard to get right. Though there have certainly been some good filmmakers that have made films of his work.

Is there anything you're reading now that you're enthusiastic about?

I've been mostly reading material about Auschwitz lately. But one book that I'm into now is called "You Can't Win," by Jack Black. It's an old book published in 1926, about the underworld and the whole culture of riding the rails. It's a book that influenced Burroughs.

Do you think you'll continue acting and directing at the same time? Or do you think there's a point at which you'll just be directing?

Unless I could make a living directing, I don't think I'd give up acting. I'm not saying I wouldn't be able to make a living directing, but it seems that the films that I'm trying to get made don't attract a lot of money. "Animal Factory" only cost $3.6 million. I would imagine "Queer" is not going to have a huge budget either.

You were once a fireman in Manhattan. Were you also acting during that time?

I was a fireman for four years, from 1980 to '84. My first year on the job, I didn't do any acting, even though I had gone to school for acting and had done some stand-up comedy before I took the job. But after I had been on the job for about a year, I started going back to acting classes. It was around that time that I met Mark Boone and we started doing our own work. And then I started working with the theater group Willem Dafoe was with. I was constantly doing theater, and the first couple of films I did, I was still with the fire department -- Engine 55, in Little Italy. I was in the engine company, which means we were responsible for getting in there with the hose and putting out the fire.

Were there any situations that were particularly hairy?

Well, they're all frightening. Any time you go into a burning building, there's the potential for disaster. I never had any real close calls, though there's no such thing as a routine fire.

Why did you become a firefighter?

My dad had encouraged me to take the civil service test when I was 18. So I did, and I kind of forgot about it until my name came up on the list four years later. By then I was living in Manhattan, working as a furniture mover during the day, doing stand-up comedy at night and looking for a change. I liked the job -- the guys I worked with and the nature of the work. I think I would have been happy doing it if I hadn't had a greater passion for acting.

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