I think so many families are touched by illness and loss, and we kind of overprotect our children often, you know, we sanitize.

My mother said, "Pack your bags and leave." And my father said, "I've already paid for a year and a half - why don't you stay and get the degree?" And I said, "That's a good idea, because then I can at least run a theater even though I have no talent, and I'll never be an actor." It's my fault that I believed them.

I used to be terribly shy, so I was either shy or over the top, and I always had a difficult time.

I had always done theater in extracurricular ways. I'd never been a drama major.

My father was always very interested in space. I watch Star Trek and all those things, but I always had a different picture in my mind... maybe closer to Alien. I don't see it in space as much as I do see it in different planets, with each having its own strange characters.

After I left Yale, we were all doing these mad plays off - off Broadway. And I got back to that feeling I had from college, of everyone making up in front of one cracked mirror, which is what I loved - the scrappy theater idea. I think off-off Broadway healed me, made me an actor again, and I was in so many different crazy shows.

Don't depend on other people's encouragement. It's never enough and never when you need it.