Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.
Bradley Whitford
You need to be real enough to be believable, but you don't necessarily have to be real enough to be real. There is a distinction.
I have to think that I think it's always been a horse race between this administration's temporary political acumen and their completely, utterly, totally bankrupt policies. And they're coming home to roost. It was always a question of time. These guys aren't conservative. These guys are radicals.
Whatever you do, make sure you want to write more than you want to be a writer. Make sure you want to act more than you want to be an actor. That is what will sustain you.
One of the most surreal moments in this election was after the third debate, when I heard a talking head say, Al Gore won on substance, on the issues. But you have to give the victory to Bush because he seems presidential.
I was at the vice president's Christmas party. I thought that his speech was spectacular, and I knew that it was a very emotional and difficult thing for him to do, but I admonished him for not waiting just one more stinking day.
You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in.
I identify with this guy's frustration and inability to control his fury at moments. I even identify with the way that this guy covers up a lot with humour. So yeah, it's interesting.
Having an affair with an intern is just an incredibly stupid thing to do.
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.
We're telling a story. And the demands of that are different from the demands of a documentary. The audience must believe in order to keep faith in the story.
Cal Ripken is steady, he focuses on his job, and he's a good guy.
I heard an Israeli speaking on Palestinian human rights issues, an interesting guy, and he said 'There's no military solution to terrorism. If there were, Israel would be the safest place in the world. But there's no military solution.'
You don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything.
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!'
The issue for my character, and the issue of the show is, how dirty do your feet have to get without suffocating yourself in the mud in order to get an inch of what you really want done?
Richard Schiff is a really good baseball player. It's surprising because he looks exhausted.
When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.
Misogyny is at the reptilian brain stem of a lot of right-wing politics.
With the success of a show, you get an opportunity to call attention to things that you believe in.
Anybody who can dial a telephone can master tennis scoring in about 15 minutes.
Love means never having to say you're a zero.
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.
This election ain't no stinkin' TV show.
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.
I can't believe George Bush might be president.
I want to see Bob Dylan do sketch comedy. I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan.
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.'
