Being at the mercy of the acting profession, in the early days of one's career, is really brutal and feels like you have no control over your life, at all.

Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didnt read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.

My philosophy about the whole thing is that awards are like gifts: it's lovely to receive them, and it is very bad form to covet them.

I think we can affect our own fates, but there's also a powerful energy that's the universe or God or whatever your unconscious recognizes that helps along your way.

I mean I’m 16 and 17 years wiser now. So if I could do it when I was 18 with a guy, I can certainly do it at 33 with a lady.

I've been profoundly germophobic since I was a young child. I don't want to kiss anyone but my girlfriend for my whole life.

I always think it's better to take a smaller role in a great film rather than a leading role in something that you don't have complete faith in.