The Clash, in particular, transcends any category.

As a viewer I came of age during a time when cast members were prone to fistfights. So I may be carrying a little of that kind of image in my head.

When we went to war at the Falklands, Buck Kernan had to shake each man's hand as we boarded a boat for war.

In the steel-and-glass society that we live in, the value system would be that the lawyer, with the Mercedes and the fine suit and the Ivy League education, was more valued than the minority without the education. But on the island, the rules are changed. It's the person who can make a fire or who can make friends. A kind human soul is valued.

For each show, we do maybe 15 versions before it goes on air. So I know every show microscopically.

Actors are the neediest people you're ever going to meet. And their relationship to real life, tenuous though it is because of all the wranglers, the money, everyone throwing everything at them every day of their lives -I think they're pretty much who they were before.

I said [to my mom], "I want to go to the parachute regiment." She said, "Whew, that's tough. But okay, I understand."