Viewers can determine what they want to watch and what they don't want to watch.
— Bryan Cranston
This self-congratulatory notion Americans have that their country is Number One is borne of ignorance and bad manners.
People would love to be rich, but they're looking for the easy way. Who wouldn't want to win the lottery? Just to score.
You don't want to be a Kardashian.
We've been trained since kindergarten: Be nice, be kind, share, put on a smile. So we're conditioned to squash our natural selfish instincts, and that's the right thing for society.
Our whole society is instantaneous.
Every experience feeds an actor, and I've learned that depression is all around us.
Love between two adults is always conditional. You can fall out of love because you are able to fall in love.
Mixing humor and politics is something that works.
It's funny, I do try to maintain health. I started doing Bikram yoga which is that hothouse yoga, the 105 degrees yoga for 90 minutes. It's great, you purge out all the sweat and you're drinking water.
I appreciate my role as an actor much more after I direct because it's just easier.
I enjoy doing comedy for the fact that you go to work and you laugh. That's a good combination.
If you like vanilla, you're not going to like 'Breaking Bad' - you need to like a specific flavor that is unusual, that is different, that takes risks.
When actors first come up, you're auditioning for everything - you're trying to sniff it out like a pig with a truffle and you would do anything!
If you have a screaming angry director, everyone else will be panicked as well.
There's this notion that in order to draw attention and to be considered for roles I want to be considered for, you need a certain amount of notoriety.
I don't have spare time.
There are far more talented people doing voice work than I.
I have a lovely family who supports me and it's great.
I want to be able to experience everything. I want to experience being a husband, experience being a father, experience, maybe, hopefully, someday being a grandfather, and all those things. I want that experience. When I die, I want to be exhausted.
I'm not crazy about being out of control, and I get emotional when things are unclean. When things are out of order. When things are messy. Because I lived in a mess as a child.
I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me.
When you're an actor in grade school, high school, college, whatever, you start to realize what you're really good at, what you're kinda good at, what you're okay at, and you start to compartmentalize. But if you know yourself and what you're capable of, it's just a matter of opportunity.
I have some anger issues.
Every time you start a project, you're hopeful that the critics receive it warmly.
I learned long ago to focus on things you can control and don't even pay attention to things you don't.
Love is not as important as good health. You cannot be in love if you're not healthy. You can't appreciate it.
As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.
You get addicted to emotions. Our endorphins kick in and it's like a high. On the low end you might love roller coasters. On the high end you might be a bank robber or something.
There's so many things that can go wrong in the execution of a project like a television show or a movie, so many little elements, any number of things, all the way to marketing - like they could market it poorly and nobody finds it and down it goes.
I don't really relax. When I sleep, I relax.
Money has never been my primary goal.
At my age, I don't think anyone is untouched by cancer.
I've done more crap than I care to remember. I really have. 'Airwolf.' 'Murder, She Wrote.' 'Amazon Women on the Moon.' But you learn from all these bad shows. What you don't want to do and what you don't want to be involved with.
It's up to the actor to make sure they don't get typecast.
The only thing that we as actors really can control is to be able to say 'yes' or 'no' to the material.
I can tell you for sure: people who are at their peak right now will not sustain that. You can't. It's against the law of nature.
It's mind-altering when you slip into someone else's shoes. That's psychedelic, man.
Actors are inherently self-centered.
The TV business is like the produce section of the market. Today everything is fresh and glistening and firm. And tomorrow, when they find a bruise on you, they toss you out.
Hollywood has known this for quite a while: Cable is the place to go because they truly have a supportive network and they want to do things that cannot be seen on broadcast. That stimulates the writer-producer. Cable is king.
I'm a big fan of 'Mad Men.'
I'm telling you, until I shaved my head, I never realized how much heat is lost through the top of the head. I walk out in winter and it feels like I have an ice pack on my head. Unbelievable.
When you're directing an ongoing series, the tone has already been set. So a director will come in and fulfill that tone - reinforce the characters and their behavior. The challenge is to find unique ways that you can visually tell the story while keeping the established tone and the pace and the characters.
I'm pretty handy! I do a lot of things around the house, and I actually enjoy it.
Danger is cool.
If something is well-written, it has a chance to be good and if it's not well-written, it will not be good. It could even become popular, but it won't be good.
I wish Americans thought more like Europeans when it comes to money and work. They take time off, they do what they love. We think work is the most valued commodity. Really the most valued commodity is time.
My goal has always been to be a working actor.
My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don't think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn't be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world.
