When preparing for a role, a month is a luxury. Sometimes you've maybe got two weeks before you start on something. So you have to learn how to do it quickly. And the longer you have a role, that it lives in your imagination, the more you're going to be able to contribute when you get on set. Because it's really about your subconscious having time to sit with the part, so you're out doing something and then something occurs to you, you know?

I think at some point every actor has practiced their acceptance speech while they're having a shower. It's fun.

People are fascinated by evil because it's mysterious and it doesn't seem to have a rational behind it.

My father was a Catholic, but my mother wasn't. She had to do that weird deal you do as a Catholic - they deign to sanction your marriage and you have to bring your children up as Catholics.

In the old patrician world there was a custom once a week you had to eat a meal with your slaves and get to know them as people.

You get ideas from other people all the time.

Matt Weiner is an amazing writer. He's one of the best, greatest writers that's ever written for television, or just written.