Here's the thing: the unit of reverence in Europe is the family, which is why a child born today of unmarried parents in Sweden has a better chance of growing up in a house with both of his parents than a child born to a married couple in America. Here we revere the couple, there they revere the family.

I know I'm not a self-indulgent idiot; I also know I'm not the second coming of Deepak Chopra. If I had believed either of those, or both, as some people do when they get famous, that's when the mental illness arrives.

My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with people who were much older. I think I might have been temporally misplaced, so I thought I was 40. It was a premature midlife crisis.

That is who Barack Obama is - a person of admirable character - and that is who he has remained for me over these last four years. I have not agreed with his every decision, but never once have I seen him break his cool, lose his composure, or abandon his insightful perspective - even during the most serious and/or absurd national disasters.

My life is about family and friends as well as work.

On 'Transparent,' I work closely with LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming people who are now my close friends - truth be told, we're all more like family.

They were two very religious people. My father was a foundry worker and was a daily Mass attender, as was my mother.

Frankly, one of the problems we have in the country is we're not forming enough families. And that is hurting our economic work, and it's hurting our economic projections, because the best place for a child is within a strong family unit.