If you play Mark Twain and he's not funny, you are definitely not playing Mark Twain. That was the biggest challenge, in some ways. Writing and performing jokes that can come out of that brilliant delivery system he constructed: the friendly, avuncular truth-teller.

I'm a better person when I'm preparing for a role, when I'm studying a role.

I live on a ranch that's larger than Manhattan. That's a weird circumstance.

I love acting, and doing it well matters to me.

I went to public school in L.A., so I felt like I'd been in a coma for three years. I woke up, and moved to New York.

Life is precious, and when someone dies it's an opportunity to realise how precious it is. My brother drowned when I was 17. He was 15. I think I grew from that. My father didn't. It really crushed him.

Hollywood is wonderful, but it does eat its young.