Juilliard was four years, and I called it 'med school with guaranteed unemployment at the end.' And it ends: you're getting ready to go out and be an actor, and... nothing.

You don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything.

Being an actor, you always feel like you're swimming upstream. People are going, 'No, they don't like you. They don't like the way you look. They don't like how old you are.'

An experience like 'The West Wing' is what I would imagine - even though I've never done it - that surfing feels like. It's, like, 'Whoa! I can just stand up here and ride this without all the anxiety!'

I grew up in Wisconsin. It's not like growing up in New York or L.A., where you know somebody's cousin who does this. It was in the back of my mind, but I would never say that I wanted to be an actor, but as I look back, I was in every play I could possibly be in.

John Wells let me write a couple of West Wings, which was an incredible gift. I loved it once I got past the brain injury part of it, and so I'm working on a couple of things that are far from fruition, but what I want to pursue.

Misogyny is at the reptilian brain stem of a lot of right-wing politics.

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.

I can’t believe George Bush might be president.

In the right situation, acting on television can be extraordinarily satisfying creatively. But that’s incredibly rare. Otherwise, it can be like working in a really remunerative coal mine. That’s the down side.