Miguel Ferrer

We were given clear concrete tools. The course did a great job demystifying the art of fiction writing and fostering confidence. The instructor brought complex concepts down to earth. I will miss coming here every week.

I was a musician for years before I started doing this stuff. Show business was the only thing I ever considered.

People sorta know my face, but I can still go out to the supermarket, and nobody pays much attention.

My favorite place in the whole world is Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

I think my parents undoubtedly influenced me on some level.

'Traffic' was so good, and I really don't want to take a step back.

My boys have both said they want to be in the movies or on TV, and anytime I hear that, I say, 'That's wonderful; you're free to do it right after you graduate from college.'

My mother was loved by so many people, famous and not so famous.

I'm not really a guy who draws on things from my own past. I think if you're a competent actor with a good imagination, and if it's on the page, it makes your job a lot easier. If it's well written, it allows your imagination to run wild and draw inspiration from that.

I'm not one of those people who writes a biography or tries to figure out what kind of ice cream the character liked when he was 10.

You can have too much reality.

I wanted to stay on TV because I've got kids who are school-aged, so I get to see them most days as opposed to going away for movies months and months at a time.

I made an enjoyable living as a very young man, but I think as I became more comfortable and knowledgeable about myself and what I wanted, I moved into acting.

I think villainy just comes naturally to me. I get to work it out naturally so I can be a nice person in life.

I was a musician and did moderately well at that. I made an enjoyable living as a very young man, but I think as I became more comfortable and knowledgeable about myself and what I wanted, I moved into acting. I came to it rather late - later than most. I just really wanted to try my hand, and thankfully, it worked out for the most part.

I think if you're a competent actor with a good imagination, and if it's on the page, it makes your job a lot easier.

Having grown up around the theater, I've been moved by so many plays. Being a part of it, however small, is special.

I thought 'ER' was a really good script, but I didn't have any inkling that it would become the phenomenon that it did, and I don't think anybody did back then.

My dad won an Oscar in 1951 with an un-Anglicized name, the first Hispanic to ever win an Oscar, and the Academy is so intractable to this day.

I think 'On The Air' was a little too bizarre for TV.

The first several years I was an actor, I sort of eked out a living playing thugs almost exclusively until 'Robocop.'

I've been so fortunate in that people respond to what I do.

If your attention is on superfluous aspects that are not part of the story, then you can't be concentrating on the human realities of the piece.

I didn't sing, but I did play the drums.

I was drawn to it much to my father's dismay. He wanted me to be a pianist like he was, but I had coarser tastes - like that old joke: What do you call a guy who hangs around with musicians? A drummer.

'RoboCop' was maybe the best summer of my entire life.