Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you.

Working on The West Wing was similar in many ways to my experience on M*A*S*H, because you had people willing to work late at night to get it just right.

And I think belief is one of those things that comes to people in their own way. And just because I believe in something doesn't mean I think that you should.

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.

If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.

When I started out as an actor, I thought, Here's what I have to say; how shall I say it? I began to understand that what I do in the scene is not as important as what happens between me and the other person. And listening is what lets it happen. It's almost always the other person who causes you to say what you say next. You don't have to figure out how you'll say it. You have to listen so simply, so innocently, that the other person brings about a change in you that makes you say it and informs the way you say it.

I'm most at home on the stage. I was carried onstage for the first time when I was six months old.