I always wanted to be an actor. My first professional job was at 19, working in New York theater.

I was offered some film roles, and I did not do them. It would have been interesting, but I have no regrets. I am where I am; I accept and embrace the mistakes because they're character-building and they build perspective and talent.

I used to make fun of those actors who talked about the theater as their temple and their place of worship. I'm not to that degree of zealotry or idolatry of theater as this holy place. But it's a place where I get together with people who do what I do, and we understand each other in that respect.

My mother sent me lithograph years ago at the height of my television success. It said, 'When your cup runneth over, watcheth out.' I never got over it. There's something so cosmic to be inferred in that. Not necessarily anything bad, and not necessarily anything good.

People think that if you are a scientist you have to give up that joy of discovery, that passion, that sense of the great romance of life. I say that's completely opposite of the truth.

I think there is this cliche of Indian men who want a forward-thinking girlfriend but a traditional wife. I think that creates tension in a marriage.

The world had already changed before September 11. The world has been going through a process of change over the last 20 or 30 years. A civilization ends, another one begins.

It's so interesting that the romantic side of my life comes from my father, who I really didn't even know that well.