This election ain't no stinkin' TV show.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.

I can't believe George Bush might be president.

You need to be real enough to be believable, but you don't necessarily have to be real enough to be real. There is a distinction.

Richard Schiff is a really good baseball player. It's surprising because he looks exhausted.

One of the most surreal moments in this election was after the third debate, when I heard a talking head say, Al Gore won on substance, on the issues. But you have to give the victory to Bush because he seems presidential.

The issue for my character, and the issue of the show is, how dirty do your feet have to get without suffocating yourself in the mud in order to get an inch of what you really want done?

I want to see Bob Dylan do sketch comedy. I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan.

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.

John Wells let me write a couple of West Wings, which was an incredible gift. I loved it once I got past the brain injury part of it, and so I'm working on a couple of things that are far from fruition, but what I want to pursue.

You don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything.

Anybody who can dial a telephone can master tennis scoring in about 15 minutes.

Having an affair with an intern is just an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Aaron is a very passionate, maniacal writer so the scripts really come from him, but he is very open to... y'know, we'll plan ideas and we'll certainly tussle about stuff when the script comes out. So, to a certain extent, he's very interested. If there's some problem or something that doesn't ring true, he wants to know why and he wants to correct it or fight for it.

I heard an Israeli speaking on Palestinian human rights issues, an interesting guy, and he said "There's no military solution to terrorism. If there were, Israel would be the safest place in the world. But there's no military solution."

You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in.

This election ain't no stinkin' TV show.

I identify with this guy's frustration and inability to control his fury at moments. I even identify with the way that this guy covers up a lot with humour. So yeah, it's interesting.

I grew up in a family where the internalized understanding was that the kids were going to grow up into a better world. I worry, because I don't think my kids are going to have that. The world is very scary. The world would be scary without the choices the current administration made, but they just exacerbated it. And it ticks me off. I want my kids to have a good life.

We're telling a story. And the demands of that are different from the demands of a documentary. The audience must believe in order to keep faith in the story.

I was at the vice president's Christmas party. I thought that his speech was spectacular, and I knew that it was a very emotional and difficult thing for him to do, but I admonished him for not waiting just one more stinking day.

Cal Ripken is steady, he focuses on his job, and he's a good guy.

Whatever you do, make sure you want to write more than you want to be a writer. Make sure you want to act more than you want to be an actor. That is what will sustain you.

With the success of a show, you get an opportunity to call attention to things that you believe in.

Love means never having to say you're a zero.

I have to think that I think it's always been a horse race between this administration's temporary political acumen and their completely, utterly, totally bankrupt policies. And they're coming home to roost. It was always a question of time. These guys aren't conservative. These guys are radicals.

I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it.

I heard an Israeli speaking on Palestinian human rights issues, an interesting guy, and he said 'There's no military solution to terrorism. If there were, Israel would be the safest place in the world. But there's no military solution.'

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope.

We all go through life bristling at our external limitations, but the most difficult chains to break are inside us.

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

With the power of conviction there is no sacrifice.

Digg will serve as a means of gathering metrics for third party websites, providing them insights into who's digging their content, who they are spreading it to.

I love filmmaking, but I decided to go to drama school because I thought that when I'm 60 and looking back on my life, if acting hadn't been a part of it, I would hate myself.

We'll take what the other team gives us. We'll scratch where it itches.

The conception that, instead of this, contemporary society is at or near a turning point is very prominent in the views of a school of social scientists who, though they are still comparatively few, are getting more and more of a hearing.

Characters written in 1990 would be acting like idiots if they were cast into the present. For example, the reader might wonder: Why isn't she texting? Where's her cellphone? Can't she have a simple paternity test? For God's sake, look on the Internet and check him out!

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o'clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

I never thought I'd be a role model but I think to some people I am or have been.

'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is my number one biggest influence artistically in every way.

But only if I believe that my directing talents will improve the material I'd be working on. I want to make sure I don't sacrifice beautiful material on the altar of my direction.

In 1992, I was an official of the Angolan regime. I was appointed by that country to oversee the organization of the raw diamond market and responsible for the governmental authority that later controlled this market.

'Pears like my heart go flutter, flutter, and then they may say, 'Peace, Peace,' as much as they likes - I know it's goin' to be war!

Be the business never so painful, you may have it done for money.

Acting is what I love. I love being the chameleon, and you can't do that if you have just one physical type.

I was raised to speak out about politics and the world around me. I would do it whether I was in the public or not. It is the way I was taught. The American way.

I find music distracting - it takes me out of my head. What I love so much about skiing is the peacefulness.

From pacifist to terrorist, each person condemns violence - and then adds one cherished case in which it may be justified.