I've always found it funny in life when you meet people who are incredibly stupid and incredibly confident at the same time. Actually, there is nothing funnier. I mean, Donald Trump is a perfect example: he's essentially a seven-year-old on a podium.

Acting is a job of permission. Someone has to give you permission to do it. But I have started to be like, 'I only want to do things that I want to do,' and writing has afforded me the luxury.

When you're wanting to delve into something, it's the one thing that cable television lets you achieve, in a way where you can have long form. There are no defined chapters. There are scenes, but everything's not bookended by a Chevy commercial.

I think it's a bad habit for an actor to change scripts because that's not your job. You're not a writer, necessarily - although there are some actors that are good at it.

I think, in life, we're vulnerable, or human beings are vulnerable, or men are vulnerable. I think it's just a question, you know, choosing when you let that mask slip off, which I think all men do - they just usually don't do it in front of people.

When was the last time you were super offended? I might be like, 'That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!' Or, 'It's not my thing,' or, 'It was a stupid joke.' But there's such a sensitivity now. Political correctness has become really insidious.

My grandfather used to write one sentence every day in his journal: 'I love Anne more than ever today.' I think that was his meditation - keeping him in his marriage, and also his appreciation for it. It was very touching.

Don't you think it would be great to do a bunch of Nicorette commercials? Just, like, me in the desert, kind of Marlboro Man-style, driving a fast car, pulling over, looking at the sunset. Dissolving in ecstasy. Can't you see it? Me blowing huge Nicorette bubbles.

I know firsthand how much work has usually gone into a screenplay, so if there's something that rings false or a line that I would think would need a tweak or something, I will think long and hard before I even recommend changing it. In that sense, I'm very faithful to the scripts that I get - if they're good scripts.

Writing is harder than acting. I enjoy acting for just the brevity with which you can be in the experience of doing it. Writing is kind of more satisfying in that you're creating a world and doing something that feels bigger, but it's very time consuming and has a higher threshold for failure.

Even to this day, I read things in real time, you know, I don't - like, as if it's being spoken. I can't skim stuff in ways that I know certain people can. I have to sort of hear it in my head to be able to read it.

If you chase fame, you make bad choices. Being famous isn't interesting.

Sure, I considered myself an anarchist; I considered myself - I still am, obviously - distrustful of the government. But I also understand the virtues of civility or democracy and kindness, of course. I wasn't throwing garbage cans through shop windows.

I can't imagine something worse than scripts being written into a tunnel, thinking, 'I don't know when this ends. I don't know.' It usually ends when people get sick of it, but I think it's great when it gets to end on its own terms.