I was the last one to join the cast of the west Wing and when I started it was just a peripheral character - the focus was to be on the staff, not the First Family. When I did the pilot, my contract was for just three years and it was confined to maybe three or four episodes every season. The only restraint I had was that I could not play another President while the show was on the air. So, I kind of backed into one of the great events of my life and certainly my career.

We are not asked to do great things. We are asked to do all things with great care.

We never get over our fathers, and we’re not required to. (Irish Proverb)

We have to fight for something. It has to cost us. Our lives, our faith, have to cost us something; otherwise we're left to question its value.

Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself.

I think most actors rarely get the opportunity to play something really close to you and speaks to something you deeply believe.

If all of the issues that I have worked on were depending on some measure of success, it would be a total failure. I don't anticipate success. We're not asked to be successful, we are only asked to be faithful. I couldn't even tell you what success is.