Cultural comparisons are good because they can tell you about what's similar, but also sometimes they make it easier to see obvious differences.
Usually, when you get early versions of scripts, they are not very good. I found 'Borgen' amazing from the very first read-through because of how fast-paced and gripping it was. It felt more international because of the way it didn't dwell on the characters' personal lives as many Danish shows used to, but still, nobody thought it would travel.
I really hate my hair when it's not braided because it's so big when it dries. When it's wet, it looks cool, but when it dries, it gets all in my mouth during a match, and I hate it.
I knew when I was a kid that I had a Broadway voice. I wanted to be a rocker, because I grew up in that era of transistor radios at the beach.
I have invariably been in love when I haven't had the same reciprocated emotion at all. I don't choose to talk about my personal life because I believe that I don't want to, and I believe my personal life is personal.
As a father now, I wouldn't do what my dad did, because it left me feeling emotionally unstable as a kid. But he didn't do the things he did out of selfishness or malice.
There will always be women who say, 'She doesn't represent me.' In retrospect, these things are gifts, because it forces me to step up and defend what I'm doing.
Just because you're part of 'Twilight' does not mean you're a superstar. It means that you're given the opportunity to maybe become one later if you work hard. Once fandom goes away, which it will very soon, it's all about having your priorities straight and working hard.
Whatever adults don't understand, because they didn't grow up with it, is the thing they're going to be afraid of and try to legislate out of existence. It happened with videogames, it happened with television, it happened with pinball parlours and rock and roll.
I feel like I'm a New Yorker because I really know the city. I actually tell the drivers where to go - I have this bad habit, I always question the drivers. I do that all the time because I feel like I know the best way, when really it's like, 'Yo, man, shut up. This dude does this every day of his life.'
I guess I can't live without Netflix because I would have nothing to do. All I do is sit home and watch movies.
I'm really schizophrenic about that, because on the one hand I would say, yes there is, there's something inherently, even violent about it, it's wild and raw and all this.
I find that I put my body in my work when I am at a particularly difficult or joyous point because I want to feel that moment.
I have a temperament that doesn't adapt well to politics. It's because I speak my mind so much.
With brain hacking experiments, I've hacked into Morgan Freeman's brain. He was the most famous and the most nerve wracking because I got really awestruck when I met him, and the moment I was introduced to him, he challenged me there and then to hack his brain.
For most people, the question why be good - as distinguished from merely law abiding - is a simple one. Because God commands it, because the Bible requires it, because good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell.
I wouldn't mind an original letter from Napoleon to Josephine - in the early days, his letters arrived torn to pieces because he was overwhelmed by his passion for her.
I think I hid my singing talent from a lot of my friends at school because I didn't want to alienate anyone. If everyone was singing along in the car to a Madonna song, I didn't join in because when we're younger we're afraid of sticking out or showing off, when in fact we should own those things that make us really unique.
I'm hoping there'll be, if not a boom, then a big pick-up in housing because if that happens, then it will employ a lot of people, and the domino effect will go through the community, and it will help everyone.
I certainly didn't want to be in a punk rock band, because I had already been in a punk rock band. I wanted to be in a band that could do anything - like Led Zeppelin.
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.
I think, at a certain point, it's better for women not to have any alcohol because it can make your face, breasts and midsection get very bloated.
I try to stay away from calling people nerds or whatever, because I've got my own fetishes and interests.
I never really had any grand aspirations of mainstream country success because I know what that entails, and I'd probably be too much trouble for people to work with. If I can just reach the point where I can get 200 or 300 people in small clubs and I'm carving out enough money to pay my bills, then I'm the happiest guy I know.
It's weird, but Scion is kind of cool. I couldn't drive one because I'd look like one of those McDonald's Happy Meal toys with giant heads sticking out the window.
I feel lucky because earlier in my career, I found what I liked to do; it's build software that you see your friends using on the street, and they like it.
Television is a very writer-driven business, and it's one of the few parts of entertainment where writers are treated with respect, only because they need you. If they didn't have to treat you with respect, they would be happy to dismiss you.
Ideas are powerful because they allow us to see the world as it could be, rather than what it is.
I sing because I love singing. I perform because I love performing. I write because I actually enjoy writing.
I think we often live at a surface level, and that ends up with us in a lot of difficulty because we just function on assumptions and secondhand knowledge.
If you wanna be famous, then it's okay if the music is fake, because fame isn't real.
Obviously it's much easier to say that you're going to follow your passions when you're financially secure, but at least we can take solace in the fact that we now have the time to pursue the things that we really want to pursue because now the option of doing things just for the money isn't necessarily there.
I'm sure I've lost a few jobs because I'm a Christian. That's irrelevant. I can honestly say that of everything I have, of everything I've experienced, nothing compares to the joy of knowing Christ. Because I've been given a glimpse of Heaven and it outshines all of the rest.
I have done no wrong but the zealots are trying to attack me because I am so critical of them.
If I do something for my kids, I get a medal, because most fathers don't.
It doesn't matter that I didn't win a trophy because I did it my way and I lived the dream.
