I was out there for 12 days. There are more beggars in Soho than there are in Kabul.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

As an actor, you really want to resonate with your audience. I played a character on Oz and people still approach me in the streets today.

I like to keep a broad scope and read lots of different things with lots of different types of characters. Doing that is going to help develop me as an actor; you push yourself.

Democracy is not a Beloved Republic really, and never will be. But it is less hateful than other contemporary forms of government, and to that extent deserves our support.

The American way of life is not negotiable.

You don't forget crises and neither does the Queen.

When I am occupied with a work that requires continuity - a novel, for example - I write every day.

The work that I wanted to create wasn't being done then. I was too much concerned about fellow students, professors, institutional style [in Yale].

The only thing that keeps us going back to one another is that we're all filled with such enormous self-doubt. We have doubts about our ability to be alone, to self-actualize.

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.