I would love to do Shakespeare, either onstage or on film.

I am a little curmudgeonly about new media.

I don't like when an Asian-American actor says, 'I'm entering this business to change Hollywood.' It feels like the wrong reason - I would prefer they entered the business for artistic reasons, because they need to do it.

With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.

I never saw 'Home Alone.'

I try to take roles that don't fall within the parameters of any Asian stereotype.

The goal of Asians in the arts is plurality of roles. I've always been hindered by me over-thinking what is a stereotype and what isn't.

For a while, I was feeling like I was always playing characters that weren't specifically Korean or specifically Asian, even - that they were characters who were originally written white, and then they would cast me. And I used to consider that a badge of honor because that meant I had avoided stereotypes.

As an immigrant, I learned by watching other people.

I got sort of sick of seeing Asians being the blank, bland real estate agent or something. I didn't care. It didn't mean anything to me.

I've played roles that aren't expected of an Asian.

I wanted to do 'Manzanar' because I'd never done anything like it before. The spoken word there is between a drama and an essay, and I'd never worked in concert with an orchestra.

There is a real Harold Lee.

Most people deal with grief in an awkward way, and that can be funny.

Ninety per cent of being a parent is just being present and available.

The worst thing for a kid is to move around and switch schools, but as an actor, you go from job to job, meeting strangers and becoming very close right away. I've become adept at that.

Just because it's in a movie doesn't mean it's real.

Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I've made a career out of not being Asian - a lot of my roles weren't written as Asian - so there's an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.

I think Hollywood acts like followers of culture and is constantly seeking to follow trends.

Actors are supposed to be these runaways that get in a covered wagon filled with hats and tambourines and go from town to town making people smile.

It's hard in America as a writer of color, an actor of color, not to get caught up in race and culture. But you're also supposed to be able to write characters and scenes in a way where it's just a matter of fact, a component.

I'm not a good improv-er, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.

For me, the most interesting thing is longevity and sustaining a career, because that's what's truly difficult.

I'm not a natural-born actor. So it's been a very slow learning curve for me.

There was a while where every role I was getting offered was extremely noble - like the judge or the kindly nurse.

'Lost' was a phenomenon, like Elvis.

Sometimes I feel like I don't dream big enough.

When I started acting... the community was largely Chinese-American or Japanese-American, so even then I felt like a minority in the minority.

With 'The Exorcist,' a lot of things went into it. I hadn't seen the show until they asked me, and then I checked the show out and thought it was very well done.

I think the ability to emphasize is, in large part, what makes me a man and not a boy.

Sometimes I feel indie directors are in the game so they can make a film to get hired to do a big film - that we're all doing this person's reel.

I like that guy Matthew Perry a lot.

Culture is this thing that exists apart from our real life but is something we all have tacitly agreed to in America. And what film and television do, particularly in this country, is lay out the characters involved in this invisible agreement and dictate who and what can participate.

To be able to communicate with people on the other side of the globe is interesting, in an instant.

I grew up watching the Lakers.

The thing about kissing men - how do people stand it? The stubble is maddening.

I just didn't see anyone on TV who looked like me, and then I saw George Takei being cool and piloting the spaceship on television.

Part of my mission as an actor has been to define what an American is.

The more roles there are, the more actors there are.

I didn't think it was possible for Asians to be actors.

People expect me to be funnier.

I personally would love to see Harold and Kumar with children. I think that would be hilarious.

I wanted to explore Korean-American characters. And 'Columbus' did address that. The father-son dynamic felt very real to me.

Whenever I meet a Korean, I ask about their immigration history.

I'm not an activist, I'm an actor. I don't want to be an activist.

There's only so much I can do to effect change - and really, the thing that I can do that's most effective is to work and to do good work. That, I feel, is speaking out in its own way.

I want to walk the bases - I want to do all the actor-y stuff.

I'd like to be in a Western.

When Mindy Kaling asks, I try my best to say yes.

My wife and I were worried, when we had our firstborn, about how he was going to think of himself in a mostly white neighborhood. Particularly Asian men, I feel, we suffer more than Asian women, because we're told we're not worth anything in general.