Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself.

Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas.

I saw that philosophy had no power to make my life more bearable. Thus I lost my belief in philosophy.

Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.

Passion without purpose is kind of pointless. I think God gives us the vision and wisdom to help enforce what he sees for us. You don't just sit at home and end up on 'Empire.'

But most of what I've learned about acting - and a lot of what I've learned about life in the past seven years - was taught to me by Robert Altman.

I always knew I was different and that people had opinions about me. I guess I learned as best as I can to shield out a lot and live my life from within.

I cannot surrender my principles, though the whole world besides should vote them down - I can make no compromise between truth and error, even though my life be the alternative.