“You can’t control the audience. When you’re on the air and they’re not coming to the party, it’s time to shut down the party.”

You get a sense of how the show works and then let your personality take over.

What hard evidence is there that Obama doesn’t want ebola in America?

You always want to watch behavior, because the dialogue as written by our illustrious leaders is great. Eminently playable.

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that’s not me.

I just consider myself a piece of the puzzle and I’m lucky enough to be asked or invited to the party, if you will. I hope I can bring some laughs and grimaces to the fans.

It’s what I do but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I’m a family man.

Then the negative energy doesn’t even get into the room. You just have to prepare, and then go in and be the best you that you can be, and you’ll either get the job or you won’t.

A lot of the questions that anyone would naturally have about their family, you’ll get much of the answers for, or at least hints to where it will go, in the future.

What I try to do is to appreciate every job I have while I’m working on it.

I’m like a fungus; you can’t get rid of me.

I think work begets work.

The guys I grew up with, my cinematic heroes, have always been men of few words, but of action. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach.

I tested for a couple of pilots, but they said I was too tall.

I was involved with drama departments since the 5th grade. I played at it. It was an escape.

I’m always looking, as an actor, for activities. I think it’s far more interesting to watch what people do than what they say.

It’s great to be able to pretend you’re tough but funny at the same time.

Audiences have kept me alive.

We want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds. ‘Cause there are so many sleeping people.

I’ve been in love with audiences all my life, and I’ve tried to please. I hope I did.

I truly have a great love for an audience, and I used to want to prove it to them by giving them blood.

What I appreciate is acknowledging to the audience that I think they have brains.

When people told the audience that [Sam Kinison] was good, he was accepted after that.

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.

I find that when I tell lawyer jokes to a mixed audience, the lawyers don’t think they’re funny and the non-lawyers don’t think they’re jokes.