I love learning language and ideas that I didn't know before and making them sound like my own.

I love playing anyone that does stuff that I don't do.

I know where TNT's sweet spot is, and when I read 'Perception,' I thought, 'This is a chance to play a fascinating, fun, challenging character but still within the realm of something that will sit very well with 'The Closer' and 'Major Crimes' and the other shows there.'

I love everybody at TNT, and they were totally behind 'Trust Me.' I totally loved that show. I feel like it should have had more life.

Probably one of the most surreal moments of my career was acting in front of Notre Dame with a mime.

As much as I loved Pacino and De Niro and wanted to be a dramatic actor, I also grew up on sitcoms. I grew up on 'M*A*S*H' and 'All In The Family' and 'Cheers.' And then around this time - this would have been '95, '96 - I was so into 'Friends' and 'Mad About You,' the idea of being on a sitcom became a very real thing that I wanted.

Certainly 'Lonesome Dove' would be way hard now, because, I mean, back then I wasn't married. I didn't have kids.

I did 'The Commish' and an episode of 'Neon Rider,' and then I got the series called 'Street Justice,' which I ended up doing about 18 episodes of.

'Perception' was a different show than 'Will & Grace'. 'Will & Grace' was obviously a different show than anything I'd done before.

There wasn't an episode of 'Will & Grace' that didn't begin with my voice saying, 'Will & Grace' is taped before a live studio audience.

I always get a little uppity when I hear the phrase 'TV actor.' It's like saying you're a magazine reporter. I was in the theater for ten years before I ever had a TV audition.

Back when I was in theater school, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life, 'Sweeney Todd' was a huge touchstone for me, my favorite musical for sure.

I like playing a character every day. I like having something to go back to. I always enjoyed that with 'Will & Grace.' I like the camaraderie. I like having a crew that I know and I can work with every day.

We didn't, with 'Will & Grace,' set out to change the gay world. We just set out to be funny.

I was raised on 'Get Smart' and 'All in the Family' and 'M.A.S.H.,' and certainly when 'Cheers' came along, that was a big one.

Growing up, my father was a financial analyst for an oil company. He was just a regular dad. And when I would say, 'Hey, come see my play,' he'd say, 'Sure.' He'd see one, 'Oh, good play' - you know, very typical dad reaction.

I had played many gay characters before, but they were finite - guest characters in TV shows or characters in plays.

If you're doing an hour-long show, you're working movie hours, doing a 12-15-hour day. We work three or four hours a day, and get every third or fourth week off to give the writers time to write. It's the cushiest job in Hollywood.

As a television actor, there's a power you're given to use your image to do something valuable. As a parent, these messages are particularly important to me.

When I read the script for Will & Grace in 1998, I knew I was the only guy for the part.

My wife is a real camper; it's a nice way to bond.

I think there's a certain objectivity that comes from being Canadian. You're partly British and partly American; you have a good bird's-eye view of both countries. So much of the comedy that comes out of Canada is impersonation - it's less 'look at me' than it is 'look at me playing other people.'

My most romantic job: I was a manager at Baskin-Robbins.

That's an amazing feeling, to walk onstage, and you're not thinking about anything, you're not thinking about your lines or what you're supposed to do - your body, your brain knows, so there's freedom. There's not fear, there's not nerves.