I've always wanted to be part of stories about social justice - urgent, meaningful, substantial dramas.

It was the middle of winter, Con Edison had shut off my power, and I didn't have an agent. I made this VHS tape of some monologues, but I didn't even have the money for a MetroCard. So I walked the tapes 'round to the different agencies in town.

I've never had any money.

I'm a scrappy outsider from Boston, so didn't have a privileged background at all like many in business.

The last time I saw my mom was in 1997. My mom started getting sick, and my mom finally passed away in 2002. My mom was my world. My mom was everything to me. We didn't have money. We didn't have a whole lot of materialistic things, but one thing I can truly say, that my mother loved me and all of her children unconditionally.

My one complaint with my father as a parent is that, not only was he not a golfer, but also he was sort of opposed to golf. I was a country club kid growing up. I should have played golf, but my father thought golf was a sport for old men.

My father came from old money. There was less of an expectation for the children to earn a living.

The role of TV at the core of the family is that of an electric nanny.