I believe I am doing the work for humanity. This show is so uplifting.
I had to be sure we were doing something tasteful.
What happened is, when I was doing 'Taxi,' the last year, we did this thing where we had on top hats and tails, and we pretended to tap-dance. And I said to myself, 'You know, I always wanted to know how to do this.' So I got myself a teacher, and I started studying, and I got hooked.
Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them.
The hardest thing for a chef is to become comfortable with what you do. Not to be too neurotic and worried with what you are doing and how wrong or right you are.
And that's what I really love, is finding a script and fantasizing and going to a different world and kind of portraying a character that is interesting. Because other lives interest us, that's why we read magazines like 'People' and try and fascinate and drool over what other people are doing.
I'll tell you, being on set on 'Harry Potter' was nerve-wracking. It was surreal to be in a room with those three kids, all of whom know exactly what they're doing.
I went to Kent State basically to avoid going to Vietnam, I had no idea what I was doing in the world. I was lost, and trying not to get into a fight every day.
Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.
We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.
Obviously, the easiest recipes are the most successful when it comes to the home cook, because they're not intimidated by them. If I'm doing 'Boy Meets Grill,' and I do something very simple like grilled hamburgers or steaks or chicken, those are the most sought-after recipes.
I love physical kinds of comedy and getting down and dirty and doing stunts. When I was growing up, I was always getting into fights with guys and usually punching out boys my age because I was a lot bigger and tougher. So I'm naturally accustomed to putting myself into the headspace of a girl who can take care of herself.
I don't worry about what my opponent is doing.
I have a strong dance background. I danced from age five until 18, and that helps a lot. Doing a fight routine is like doing a dance routine.
I'm greedy for that satisfaction of doing something hard and knowing that, even though I was afraid I couldn't do it, that somehow I can deliver.
I'm delighted that 'The Sound of Music' is doing so well. Of course, it's an infallible piece of material. Even when second- and third-rate road companies were doing the play, they did enormous business.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well.
Some of you may know my story: How for nineteen years, I worked as a manager for a tire plant in Alabama. And some of you may have lived a similar story: After nearly two decades of hard, proud work, I found out that I was making significantly less money than the men who were doing the same work as me.
What makes 'The Wire' a beautiful story is how true to life it is. In other shows, you have a good guy and a bad guy. In 'The Wire,' bad guys are trying to be good, good guys are doing bad. You have real life. The people who do bad get bad things done to them.
I spent 10 years in New York doing theater.
I'm doing another Churchill. I did a Churchill for HBO and that was up to 1939 and there's talk of the war years. They were going to do it this fall, but the script wasn't going to be ready.
It would be interesting if this sitcom works, so I could be doing one thing all the time instead of going back and forth between all this different media which I sort of thrive on, I'm a bit of a moving target in that way.
We just bought a new house, so my wife's been doing all the moving and other stuff, so I would like to go home and just sit and enjoy all that for a couple months before I gotta start playing again.
I hated the lost colony; in second grade, we were doing American History, and they said, We don't know what happened to them. That drove me nuts. That lost colony drove me crazy.
I feel bound to respect Ronald Reagan, as every American should - not least because he chose a career of public service when he could have made a lot more money doing something else, and not least because he took genuine risks for peace.
The fun part about doing voiceovers and all that stuff is that you're not yourself; you're some other looking thing and sounding thing and whatever else.
The process of making a movie has expanded in terms of effort and time for the director, doing commentaries for the DVD for example, finishing deleted scenes so they could be on the DVD, and doing things like a web blog.
People say I'm not good at writing about men. My dad left when I was 16. Give me a break. I'm doing the best I can.
I love doing eyes - my signature look is a cat eye. I think it's so feminine, and it reminds me of old Hollywood.
In this business, you just never know from day to day. It's one reason I held off getting too involved in entertainment. I like being able to plan, I like to know what I'm going to be doing.
I knew I was doing something right because it was selling so I didn't want to interfere with it.
The first sequel thing I wrote was this 'Forever Dawn' thing that will never get out, because it's horrid. But it's a really good outline for 'Breaking Dawn' - it's very similar. I knew what I was doing, which is good, because I think if I hadn't, there might have been a lot of pressure.
I think, like a lot of other people who have been in the service, you'd been delayed in what you were doing. You wanted to catch up and the best way to catch up was to move as fast as you could toward a degree.
People are bringing a lot more of that funk element into their music, you know, with Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson - that's one that you never thought you would hear something like that on the radio again 'cause it just sounds so much like the Back Bay and what they were doing with music back then.
It is splendid to be supportive when you see those around you doing well, but blind praise is easier than harsh facts.
Acting was just another part of my life, as it still is today. It's 1 of the 10 things I love doing. It's never just been my life. As cheesy as it sounds, all my eggs were never in just one basket. I had a thousand baskets going on.
