Once you experience Third World poverty, you're really changed forever, if you're at all open to it, because we're all united in our common humanity. And we are so made as to feel something for people who are in pain. It's not possible to be human and to be unaffected by what you see in the third world.

I don't like scary films. I watched Psycho for the first time recently, alone in the house at night. That was a mistake. I had to call my friend to come over.

I act because I can't seem to live with myself if I do not. I don't know any other way to be. It isn't something you can explain; it is just something that you do; it is something that you are.

The key word about The West Wing is show. It is not a reality show. It has nothing to do with reality.

I think [Bush] would like to hand his father Saddam Hussein's head and win his approval for what happened after the Gulf War.

I have been accused of being a traitor, and I have been accused of not supporting the military. Nothing could be further from the truth.

On the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats. We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn't left to the wealthy and privileged.