Even more important than what we do, then, is who we are.

John the Baptist was supposed to point the way to the Christ. He was just the voice, not the Messiah. So everybody's calling has dignity to it and God seems to know better than we do what is in us that needs to be called forth.

Washington is a great international city and in the congregation we have people who are rich and poor, black and white, and from every part of the world.

Even more important than what we do, then, is who we are.

I dropped out of school for a semester, transferred to another college, switched to an art major, graduated, got married, and for a while worked as a graphic designer.

I have to confess that there have been some times when I was less than glad to be a minister, and some Sundays still when I tremble under the weight of trying to speak a word for God.

As long as I loved and served Christ I could be anything I wanted to be.

There are congressmen in our congregation, judges, federal reserve governors. And there are also people who are homeless and some who are mentally ill. To be able to talk to each of those people is something that I've had to learn how to do over the years.

It's not just being called to the ministry that counts.

While I am the one who made the choice to enter the ministry, there was a choice before that one, the choice God made in calling me to be his in the first place.

I know the world is hungry for good ministry.

I began to pray those same fervent prayers, lying in bed at night, hoping to see a scroll unrolled from the ceiling with a message from God just for me.

I went off to a school with the children of CEOs and diplomats. To be able to be at home with that group of people and at home with the desperately poor has been good for me in preparation for my coming to Washington.

We were growing up in West Virginia. Everybody was poor there in the southern part of the state. It was like growing up in the Great Depression from the stories I hear people tell. Everybody was poor and so we didn't know that we were any different from anybody else.

My father was a Presbyterian minister, working among the poor in West Virginia. He had taken what amounted to a vow of poverty when he accepted that call and so we never had much money.

I do not want to admit to the world that I can be a bad person. It is just that I don't want anyone to have false expectations. Moviemaking is a harsh, volatile business, and unless you can be ruthless, too, there's a good chance that you are going to disappear off the scene pretty quickly.

I'm a big lover of Shakespeare. In fact, the only plays that I've ever done professionally in New York have been Shakespearian.

With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.

In regards to your love life, you're just entering into a whole of pain if you talk about it. If you've never said anything, there are no sound bites to haunt you when you're crying into a box of Kleenex after it all goes wrong.

I feel more comfortable in front of a camera than anywhere else.

I'm fortunate to work for a company that supports investigative journalism with strong editors and lawyers. That's the benefit of working for a company that's been around for more than a century.

We ministers have undoubtedly failed to connect and apply Christianity to the practical everyday problems of the average man. In this, we have failed to follow in Christ's footsteps. For the religion which He taught and revealed in His own life and ministry was an intensely practical and down-to-earth affair.

Fiction is harder for me than nonfiction - more gratifying, as a result, when it succeeds.

In a way, as an actor, you do all the preparation and then you want to forget it and just play the scene. As a director, you can't forget it because somebody will remind you that you forgot something. But you can know your plan well enough that you still have a certain amount of freedom.

After appearing for eight seasons as a beloved character on 'Supernatural,' it's not surprising that I get most of my recognition on the street from that, and it happens with some frequency. But I'm not a guy who gets recognized often.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

I started making music that I loved and was passionate and excited about, but it was really cool when I started touring to realize it's an extremely diverse group of people who come out. In the front row, I'll have everyone from a little girl in a frilly tutu, to rockers and gamers and older couples. I love it that it's just everybody.

I find performing very difficult. It's difficult to be a good actor. I get very nervous, even though it sounds disingenuous, because you could legitimately go, 'Well, why do it?'

What is the real purpose behind the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? They seem like greater steps toward faith and imagination, each with a payoff. Like cognitive training exercises.

There is no person that love cannot heal; there is no soul that love cannot save.

Dead men never pick up their trophies.

I don't want to shut down the government.

Festivals cause diseases, since they lighten cares but increase gluttony.

I looked on YouTube for sleep deprivation and there were videos of people experimenting with staying awake for a while. You saw all the different stages.

If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life.

Working with real wolves has been exhilarating. They're so amazing. They're these beautiful, brilliant animals and they're great to work with.

I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts with the private sector people, but I didn't think a CIA person should do it.

Sometimes I think back to everything I've been through, and I wonder, 'Man, how the hell did I get here?'

I crushed high school. I was a huge dork.