And of course Marc Cherry heightens it and makes it hilarious. But there's so many universal themes in the show, and he made it so funny. We knew he was onto something if he could keep it up and, thankfully, he did.

My parents were amazing people who had no business being together - and they knew it.

We've all been around love enough to know how lucky we are. I've never seen anybody have a cross word on the set, and I'm there a lot. All the women just got brand-new trailers, so they're happy.

They're pretty particular about what they show. They certainly edit the scripts and have conversations with the writers about what they are and aren't willing to portray. But the writers and the network are pretty much on the same page.

It was described as Sex and the Suburbs. It's so not that. Because on Sex and the City, those women told each other everything; on our show, it's much more like the real suburbs - nobody tells anybody anything. Everything's a secret.

My last real job was selling air time for CBS affiliates. I quit that when I was 28, and that was the last real job I had. I beat the system. I've been able to do this full-time for almost 15 years.

James was my given name, but I was a junior; so I was Jamie as a kid.

I still treat every job as if I might never get hired again as far as the way I save money and live really modestly.

It's still about the women. It's not called Desperate Plumber. People are more interested in cat fights.

I've been on a lot of shows that nobody cared about.

Real acting is realistic no matter what the medium.

I'm pro-choice and those things, but I typically vote Republican.

I was born and raised in the South, which is pretty conservative.

The promos with all of the beautiful women probably attracted some men, but the mystery story line is pretty cool. It's got that dark edge, and people will watch anything funny.

I love David Caruso. I know it's not cool, but I do. I watch CSI: Miami. I think he's interesting.

The cast is so big that you really don't work very much.

I saw a story in the Los Angeles Times that 40 percent of the viewers are men. It didn't really surprise me.

I have a long track record of really horrible relationships and a divorce behind me; so I'm not the guy to ask. I just got really fortunate with this one.

It slows down grocery shopping, because so many women at the store watch the show. I always end up talking to two or three people every time I go to Ralphs. It's fun.

I think theatre helped, only because it was acting experience. I got to work with a lot of directors.

I'm not a hard-line Republican, because I'm a lot more open-minded than that.

And of course Marc Cherry heightens it and makes it hilarious. But there's so many universal themes in the show, and he made it so funny. We knew he was onto something if he could keep it up and, thankfully, he did.

My wife being a trainer helps, because when I'm at home, everything we keep at the house is pretty healthy.

The biggest surprise about our marriage is that Erin was out there.

Last year, I was on Threat Matrix. We were on Thursday against Friends and Survivor; so this year it's fun to know people are watching, and to know that all of your hard work is not sort of wasted.

When I came out here, my manager thought that casting directors might think I'm a girl, and when I did Threat Matrix, they thought Jamie was a little light.

And they didn't have to get into a lot of legal speak or talk ER terms, they were real people. I think that's why so many actresses were attracted to it. And it was just about problems that you could identify with so much, right off the bat.

I'm off at least three or four days a week, so it's a perfect job, really.

This is my third ABC show over the last four years, so we were afraid that nobody would find it. ABC was really struggling and so we just weren't very confident that it would find an audience.

I think it's important that the rest of the world know that we're not all the same and that we don't all have the sort of arrogance it feels like they're perceiving from our leaders.

I think it helps a lot when they tell people that Teri Hatcher likes you. If you're Teri Hatcher's boyfriend, suddenly you're hunky I guess. I've spent 40 years being average and now I'm Teri hatcher's boyfriend and here we are. I've been really fortunate.

I never had any classes or went to theatre school like a lot of actors, so all of my training has been on stage with different directors. That was a pretty good school room.

It's funny, 'cause it seems like just yesterday that I was the youngest player just starting out. But now there are young players all over the league, and they'll ask me questions about playing overseas or finding an agent.

When Frank the Pug is singing I Will Survive, the only reason it's funny is that Will is in that shot trying not to get angry. A shot of a dog singing I Will Survive on its own will not get a laugh.

I sometimes lie awake at night trying to think of something funny that Richard Nixon said.

Robert Altman's Nashville is my all-time favorite film because it covers all the bases - it's original, moving, and has something to say, but also funny and incredibly entertaining.

You amaze me. You're 229 years old and that's what you think is funny.

You have to understand the tone of the movie, because if it's supposed to be funny, it can be funny violent like the Home Alone stuff, but you have to really understand the tone of what you're doing and make the action work for that and for the character.

It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realise the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger.

Half of the great comedians I've had in my shows and that I paid a lot of money to and who made my customers shriek were not only not funny to me, but I couldn't understand why they were funny to anybody.

There's a constant flow of child actors. It's kind of funny to watch the new crew come through. I think, You poor little things. You're going to have to struggle for a long time.

For sheer sexiness, a man must be beautiful. Funny. yes. Clever, no.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

Books are funny little portable pieces of thought.

I had an idea of what I thought was funny. It's kind of based on how I am.

So while it is true that I find really dark stuff funny sometimes, it's also true that as a writer of books I want to have the whole range of human emotions.

When we criticize in Iran the actions of the government, the fundamentalists say that we and the Bush Administration are in the same camp. The funny thing is that human rights activists and Mr. Bush can never be situated in the same group.

So to me, Texas Hold 'em puts me to sleep. At least when you play stud, you can be funny as you deal. Somebody some day is going to come up with a Stud show that's going to work.

Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.