Here's what Oklahoma native Paul Sparks had to say about working with Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi and Michael Shannon on the award-winning HBO series “Boardwalk Empire”:

• On Scorsese: “That was one of the most terrifying, and yet, it was a huge learning experience, because, of course, it's Martin Scorsese. ... You're like, ‘How am I working with this legendary person?' And he has a ton of energy, and he's very, very meticulous and smart. ... He has crazy stories about famous people, that you just can't believe it. He's constantly telling those things and reassuring everybody who he knows are kind of like nervous and stressed out that he's going to be mad at them or something, I don't know. But he's very good about saying, ‘You know we're going to get this.' I can hear him talking, going (imitating Scorsese's' voice), ‘Hey, we're going to get this. Don't worry. We won't leave until we do.' He's very comforting in that way. I will say that when I auditioned for him that I'm pretty sure I kind of blacked out while I was in the room (laughs), so I'm not sure what happened in there or how I got the part. But I know that when we worked together on the actual day, that it was very pleasant.”

• On Buscemi: “He's one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Totally down to earth. I don't know that there's anybody that's nicer than Steve. A lot of times, sets are not such fun places to be, and especially television sets, because everybody works so hard and everybody's kind of grumbling about getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning and not getting home until midnight. And, so, it's very important that the person who's sort of in the No. 1 spot, they set the tone. And Steve is not a complainer, and he's a guy that's really game to do stuff, and he sets the right tone, and it all trickles down.”

• On Shannon: “Mike is probably one of my best, if not my best friend. ... We were both kind of like, ‘What? We're on the same show? Impossible.' It was pretty funny.”