We're telling a story. And the demands of that are different from the demands of a documentary. The audience must believe in order to keep faith in the story.

Anybody who can dial a telephone can master tennis scoring in about 15 minutes.

At the end of your days, you will be judged by your gallop, not by your stumble.

My joke about Aaron Sorkin is that The West Wing was a great show about democracy, run by Kim Jong-Il!

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are

Help us show children around the world that we can make a difference together.

I used to defend the West Wing show from the charge of sentimentality or wish-fulfilment, because I think if you do go into the Barack Obama White House you will find six or seven people around him who are true believers. We make these people climb this filthy rope and then we stand at the bottom and say, "Hey, your hands are dirty!" To show heroic, progressive, democratic politics at work was more than I ever expected.