We see and hear about Israelis and Palestinians only when they are defined by the global media as 'occupiers,' 'terrorists,' and 'victims.' But we forget that they are fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and neighbors and doctors and shop-owners and farmers and students.
— Jason Alexander
Many people don't know our famous 'soup kitchen' episode on Seinfeld was inspired by an actual soup restaurant off 8th Avenue in New York.
Television, in particular, doesn't look for talent; it looks for personas. You have a great persona? You can be a TV star.
I am hard-core middle class.
I went into performing for the community. Being backstage with your company of fellows is the best part of working in live theater. That energy, that combined focus, the synergy - it's addictive.
I met the real George Steinbrenner on only one occasion when he actually came and played himself on an episode of 'Seinfeld.' He seemed to really enjoy himself. I did not get to know him, but the fact that he allowed himself and his beloved team to be satirized on our show is an indication to me of his true character.
Theater is very much the world I'd like to get back to, particularly in New York, both as an actor and director.
I was the teenage kid growing up in New Jersey watching the Tony Awards and thinking, 'Oh, maybe if I'm lucky I'll make it to Broadway by the time I'm 40!'
I'm actually one of the more reluctant celebrities you will ever meet.
Poker is just a hobby I'm passionate about. It's not supposed to bring glory.
One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.
Where are reliable journalism and reliable investigative voices going to come from? I love the days of old - the Walter Cronkites, the Dan Rathers.
The pilot of 'Seinfeld' was made and dropped. 'Seinfeld' was not supposed to go to series.
What you find with singers, no matter where they're from, if they have any kind of an accent, the accent tends to disappear when they sing.
Most of the musical film work that I have done has been in this realm of what I think of as real family entertainment.
I find when somebody says to me, 'I'm going to motivate you,' more often than not, they're not going to get me.
Things that make me laugh range from a wonderful stand-up like Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock to my son Gabe, who does great improv work. I also look backwards to the great comedic actors like Jackie Gleason, Paul Lynde and Phil Silvers.
I found that looking at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from an outside vantage point was actually quite distancing. The history of the conflict, the personalities, the violence, the distrust, and the seeming lack of viable solutions made meaningful involvement feel impossible. What changed that, for me, was changing the vantage point.
Actors go, 'I just want to act.' And I say to them, 'You know, stop for a second and think about what charges you up the most. Do you want to be on the stage, do you want to be in film, do you want to be a comic actor? Do you just want to make it for the money and capitalize on your look and do commercials and soaps?'
Really, the golden egg of doing a series is that you cross that very stupid bridge that says 'Name Actors Only' in casting sessions. All of a sudden, you become a name actor; it gives you marquee value. That's all that a series does.
Acting is not terribly important work, and I have always felt a bit of guilt about pursuing something that is so selfish. I love doing it, but it is never something that feels like it's going to change or save the world.
Most stand-up comics relish performing 'in one' - solo. They like the autonomy.
I have always wanted to play Sweeney in 'Sweeney Todd.'
In New York, the theater is a destination point. In Los Angeles, no matter how provocative, how successful, how star-studded the theater event may be, it is, at best, a second-class citizen.
I'm not a director to make an action or horror film. That's not for me.
What is it about Iowa? I'm the shortest guy in the state.
One of the downsides of being a poker pro is that people see exactly how you play.
I do think that the days of gathering around a television set that functions merely as a television set, to receive a live broadcast of some networked programming, those days are probably numbered.
When CNN does a story and then says, 'Tweet us what you think' - why? Why does it matter what I think? Why should my thoughts be broadcast on a national news program? It's enough for me to just sit and listen and learn.
Even when I was an actor in training, one criticism my teachers had was that I should think about directing instead of acting, because the best actors see the material they're working on through blinders. They can't see anything but their role. I could never really do that.
I'm a singer and performer in a hybrid show that's standup, music and audience participation.
'Broadway Bound' is near and dear to my heart, as it was one of my happiest times on Broadway.
I have no illusions about having another 'Seinfeld' in my life.
I love smart comedy.
The Middle East is a very difficult stage to play upon. Without doubt, it is a good drama. And on occasion, there are situations so unimaginable, if not ludicrous, as to make them almost comic. But the cast is constantly changing, the audience is often disengaged, and it seems at times that no one is actually running the show.
Do you want to have a career that goes beyond, you know, 11 minutes in a 22-minute television show every week? Some people don't. That's fine.
You need to find the size of performance that's appropriate to the material, appropriate to the shot, or appropriate to the scene.
Boston was a great town to go to college in. Maybe that's why there's so many colleges there. I love the town, and I loved Boston University.
The downside of being a celebrity is that people kind of know about you, and you really don't need them to know about you - you need them to know about your work.
It's a question of finding the right thing, if I'm going to be an actor... if I have to get up eight times a week for a number of months, I want to be excited and challenged from the day I start to the day I leave.
The world of the stage and the performance on the stage usually does not tend to translate very well - it doesn't tend to hold very well - once cameras are on it; it's not like it's terrible or embarrassing or bad anything, but, I, as an actor, would perform a role differently for an audience than I would for just cameras.
I started balding at age 17 and after first being sad, I really embraced it.
Comedy lives on in the web and TV, but nobody's pressing comedy albums anymore.
Every poker player, like every fisherman, needs to have a story in a box, and most poker stories are completely uninteresting.
I think that I have very few personal gifts to bring to real politics.
Do people absolutely need the arts to get by day-to-day? You can make that claim, but they also really need a lot of things before that.
Directors get to fire on many more cylinders than an actor.
I have actually lost a couple of roles - film roles - because a director or producer thought I looked too much like George Costanza, and I could not get out of that box.
I can get motivated seeing a kid at my son's school overcome a learning disability.
There are always things that I'd love to do. As an actor, none of them are specific; all I'm looking for are things that are good quality, that are challenging for me to work on, and even better if I get to work with people that I respect and am excited to work with.
