I worked at a McDonald's drive-through. I could always tell when girls were interested: They'd drive around again and say, "I forgot something."

When we were doing 'Freaks and Geeks', I didn't quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn't on me. I thought I was helping the other actors by keeping them on their toes, but nobody appreciated it when I would trip them up. So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way.

When I research a role it does get a little crazy and maybe even a little stupid.

If this is the only life, then why I’m not just doing everything I want to do.

I was an English major at UCLA when I was 18, and then I left after a year to start acting. I was educating myself during that time.

Dreams and expectations also have the very dark flipside of disappointment, broken dreams.

I put out a lot of different kinds of material, and maybe people read that as egotistical. Or maybe, since a lot of it does involve some aspect of me, they find it self-aggrandizing. But there’s a long tradition of artists using themselves. Look, I know I’m not perfect. And, who knows, maybe a part of it has to do with self-obsession. But it’s also about using this weird thing that is a public persona as raw material for creative projects.