David Hyde Pierce Quotes

I think being an actor in general is acknowledging that we are constantly playing different roles, that we have all these different parts of ourselves and instead of pretending that you are just one thing, as an actor you get to admit that you've got all this stuff going on.

You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there's only so deep you can dig in that week.

I found every single laugh as Laertes that you can find and only realized later that you really shouldn't find any at all.

Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease.

I was as happy doing theater in New York for little or no money as I am now doing television for more money. The happiness, I guess, comes out of it being a good job. The success has to do with the fact that it's a good job that will continue.

My dad had been an actor... not only had my dad been an actor, but his dad had been an actor, and my great-grandfather had been an actor. And who knows before then?

Most of us aren't crazy psychotics, but most of us are a whole bunch of different people. I think when you are in a position of authority, that doesn't remove that from you.

I don't have the time to tell you all the things I've learned from this cast. It's an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well.

I always think extremism is basically a reaction out of fear. What we seem to be experiencing is polar extremism that keeps people from coming together.

I would always fall down the big main staircase in our house. My favorite thing in the world was to pretend to be horribly killed at the top of it, and to fall dramatically down to the bottom of it.

There's nothing worse than putting two similar shows back-to-back. Viewers don't want to watch one show and then sit through another half-hour of almost the same thing.

I don't remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years.

From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between... and sometimes in the same moment.

So much of life is paradox. So much of life is neither one thing nor the other... it's both things at the same time.

There's nothing more powerful than someone who has the disease who can be articulate and go in front of Congress or go to local government and say man, this is what's happening, and it's going to be you.

Her lips said 'no', but her eyes said 'read my lips'.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, I'm finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You're not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.

We all went to Kelsey's wedding, and yeah, we go to parties. We also go to each other's house. A group of us got together over at Kelsey's and just read through some plays just for the fun of it. That may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but we had a good time.

People can be a hoot on the set, but if they're not good to work with, that tires very quickly.

Don't you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It's like you ordered wrong.

On some level in acting, what you're trying to find is truth, because when it's true is when it's also funny.

We can't control what the ratings will be. It's like, if you're going to go skiing, do you hope you'll have a good day of skiing? Yes. Do you hope you won't break your leg? Yes.

I probably was as bad as a security guard as I was as a tie salesman.

I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible... but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game.

I was chased through a chateau in the Loire Valley by a bunch of American school girls.

Sometimes in the most tragic situation, something just profoundly funny happens.

I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I'd end up in some sort of dead end, and not fulfilling whatever potential they thought I had.

The first year I was on the show, it took an interviewer about 45 minutes to get it out of me that I even had a dog, and even then I wouldn't tell him the dog's name.