People always ask about learning all of your lines as an actor, and it's generally the easiest part of the job.
When you read the news, and you see all this bad stuff happening, there's a tendency to lose faith in humanity. But I meet so many people who restore it and realize that, actually, 99 percent of people are great.
I watch '60 Minutes' and 'Dateline' and '20/20.' I work in fantasy all day, so when I go home I want to touch reality.
Theater audiences don't pull punches. They'll let you know when they're feeling ripped off.
I'm not at my best when I'm not working - I'm certainly not at my happiest. Acting will always be my first love.
I'm still a Chicagoan in the fact that I can't do Christmas with sand and palm trees. It just doesn't compute - it's not Christmas unless your face hurts when you step outside.
When I started on 'Roseanne,' it was a great achievement for me at the time. But I wasn't a part of building it; I wasn't a carpenter in creating that juggernaut.
I work in fantasy all day, so when I go home, I want to touch reality.
When I'm back home in Chicago, since 'Roseanne' was such a Midwestern, blue-collar show, that's what sticks out in people's minds.
It took me a long time to realize that to walk around without a certain amount of belief in myself, to walk onto a job with my tail between my legs, wasn't behooving anyone else.
I know a lot of incredibly, profoundly talented, skilled people that aren't given certain opportunities or any opportunities, and that aren't working.
I love to work. I absolutely love to work.
I'm a fan of music in general.
I'm not at all competitive. I'd rather play Solitaire than ping-pong.
Right now, I'm very healthy. I have no vices left. Except sugary breakfast cereal. And absinthe, of course.
I don't know what to do with myself between films. I end up doing unhealthy things like shopping or drinking. I'm pretty schizophrenic about it.
We've all seen great actors and actresses who are missing a certain chemistry. And it's not about getting along or not getting along.
I bought a little hideaway up north, so I'll ship my motorcycle up there. It's much less dangerous than West Hollywood.
It's never been a priority for me to concentrate on the likability of the character.
We didn't have a TV because we didn't have a whole lot of money. My parents would have their friends over - their friends who thought, 'How can you live without a TV?'
Perhaps 'Big Bang' fans feel so protective of the show because it is, despite being a hit show on a big network, something of a word-of-mouth phenomenon.
I used to know Jennifer Love Hewitt. We lived in the same apartment building when I was about... jeez, I guess it was when I was doing 'Christmas Vacation', so I was about 13 or 14.
In a series, you really need to stay open-minded. It's not like a play or a film, where you can create and fully commit to your character's back-story.
We can't really do any improv on 'The Big Bang' because we don't understand a lot of what the dialogue means to begin with, because of the physics jargon.
People are complicated; you put two of them together and it's generally a mess, but hopefully a beautiful mess.
You can't really claim too much ownership of your character. They really do belong to the writers, and in many ways, you're just their puppet.
It's that one thing that you're passionate about, that you end up developing tunnel vision for and everything else tends to fall by the wayside. Passion is appealing and universal.
'Entourage' is a great show, but it's fantasy. I spent my twenties in L.A. in this business, and my life didn't look anything like that. 'Big Bang' reflects a side of men that is rarely shown. We see their flaws - all of them.
I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of 'Pippin' were few and far between.
You get to a certain point - gratefully - when you're out of your twenties, and you realize how fleeting life is. So, it becomes important to feel as if the people in your life know exactly how you feel about them at all times.
