You have to treat every hour of television you're given like a $100 million movie, and with 'A.D.,' we stepped it up even a stage further.

My mantra is: Realize you're going to fail all the time, and accept it. That doesn't mean I'm not frightened of it.

You don't need to make shows about sex and drugs and violence to get ratings.

There are screens at the gas station, there are screens at the shopping mall. And they all need content.

I came here with nothing, with maybe a hundred bucks in my pocket and had to get a job. And these wealthy people who had made their money themselves, I worked for. It did show me what could be achieved in America, what's possible if you have some vision to take big risks.

I'm the kind of person who if I was playing the role of someone who got shot, I'd probably want to get shot so I knew what it felt like.

In Europe and Australia, there is something called the Tall Poppy Syndrome: People like to cut the tall poppies. They don't want you to succeed, and they cut you down - especially people from your own social class.