The honor of being able to play Maura is transformative. I'm 70 years old. I should be in a reading room, reading Dickens or something.

We have been treated gorgeously by Amazon.

I think most of my heroes are not the traditional types. A guy I was fascinated with was Buster Keaton. I just love what he did. I love that mug.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is part of our constitutional rights and it belongs to everybody.

What's interesting about playing Maura is that I get to use more of Jeffrey that I've ever used in any role, and I think that's the remarkable part about it and truly the most surprising part about doing this role.

I did not know that you had to learn makeup. I just thought you went, 'Oh, I'm gonna put on some makeup.'

You want to feel, 'I know that character.'

I think of everything as comedy, but I don't think of it in terms of sitcom comedy, I think of it in terms of Chekhov comedy. Chekhov called his plays comedies. There's always a mixture of a laugh with sadness. So the plie to the laugh is sadness.

There was a library near us in San Francisco. It was the West Portal Public Library. I would ask my father to drive me there at night and pick me up when it closed. I think he was worried about this routine but never let on. Also, I kept this a secret from my friends, as I don't think it would have been considered the 'coolest' habit.

I am a huge believer - I always have been - in the power of comedy. That comedy will break hatred and will bring understanding.

I worked at The Old Globe Theater under the great baton of Craig Noel. One of the great theater heroes that we have. He was so great and so inspirational. I think I did 'Antony and Cleopatra' and 'The Taming of the Shrew'. I lived in Ocean Beach, and my rent was $140 a month.

I thought I was gonna do Lear, but I'm gonna do Maura.

If you see 'Pollock,' I weighed almost 270 pounds.

I think shows being sent out this way - pressing a button and 10 episodes can go out to the U.S.A., and the U.K. and Germany, it's very cool.

So many people say they went to school on 'The Larry Sanders Show.'

My wife thought I was Vincent Schiavelli, and we married.

Owning a bookstore was right up there with acting in life goals, but other than swaggering around the store, I'm not much use.

Usually when you act, you know where you're going, where the point is.

I would not be unhappy were I the last cisgender male to play a female transgender on television.

You just put your head down and do the work.

I was an artist - I fancied myself an artist - I sold paintings at bars to pay my rent.

I grew up with my uncle's comic books at my grandma's house, so I've always loved my comic book reading.

If you outsmart your audience, you're going to lose them.

I don't think I could last in anything for 10 years doing a character.