In drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.

I grew up studying music. I went to conservatory.

'The Wire' really drew on a lot of real-life situations and real-life organizations - it created fiction to make a social statement about reality.

That's what David Caruso said to me. We were talking about the whole Emmy thing, and he said that one of the things about awards in this town is that a lot is about the drama - like the drama of the performance. And he said "Your show, The Wire, looks so real, it almost looks like a documentary. And people who aren't artists - a lot of people who vote for this stuff - don't get it."

If you're going to come at me, come at me respectfully, and I will respond respectfully.

Growing up, I never imagined I would be an actor.

I started to realize, a lot of times if you go into your memory, your sense memory, you know more than you think you do, from having watched and listened.