I try to get that across in the work, to try to, if I'm lucky, to make this world a little bit better for all of us before I check out. And that's if I'm lucky, I don't always get to have that privilege but I try always.

I would go to war with words, not weapons. I would die talking before I lifted a weapon.

Arthur Miller said one of my favorite lines ever, that he had the mother say to her two sons about a very unstable father in Death of a Salesman. She said, "Attention must be paid." It's one of the most resonant lines that I think he ever wrote, and I think attention must be paid to the truth.

In my prayers every day, which are a combination of Hebrew prayers and Shakespeare and Sondheim lyrics and things people have said to me that I've written down and shoved in my pocket, I also say the name of every person I've ever known who's passed on.

When I'm on the road with concerts, people ask me to autograph my CDs, but more and more they come up with the cookbooks.

So I'm truly an actor who sings, and not a singer who acts.

I think it's fair to say I'm attracted to playing characters who are rather intense.