Apparently Sodapop Curtis said "gnarly," and Chris Traeger said "literally." Every decade I have a favorite phrase I can't stop with.

Trying to execute that kind of intricate staging in the West Wing at the same time you're doing intricate dialogue - it's like patting your head and rubbing your stomach!

I wouldn't go back on my old days, though; everybody needs to have their wild years. It's just a question of when and I'd rather have had them early than be doing it as a mid-life crisis type thing.

It's the media that take an isolated incident and make it a deciding factor in a presidential campaign, as opposed to the real issues, like abortion, the homeless, the deficit. The same is true with actors and their lifestyles.

So I came to the realization: Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life.

For the only time in my career, I came in and met Tony [Richardson] for the part - I did not read, I just met with him - and in the middle of the meeting, he told me that I had the part [in The Hotel New Hampshire]. There was never, "Well, thank you, and we'll have my people call your people." There was none of that kabuki that goes on now endlessly for even the smallest role.

When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn't have taken myself seriously.