Surprise is a huge element in acting.

I grew up surrounded by sketch comedy.

There's a lot of closeted nerds out there.

Im married, so I tend not to hit on every girl.

I think that everybody is kind of a nerd at heart.

Failing passionately is a success in its own right.

I do have sometimes a difficult time watching myself.

My mom is a casting director, which is pretty awesome.

Well, I think that everybody is kind of a nerd at heart.

As an actor, you always want to root for your characters.

I guess I get really obsessive or passionate about things.

In America, the first thing people say is, 'What do you do?'

I would say Mick Jagger plus Mr. Furley equals Howard Wolowitz.

I might love dancing more than I should admit. But not in public.

I enjoy spending my spare time with my wife, our cat, and our bird.

I think there's a freedom in freeing yourself of the baggage of ability.

I'm interested in character and people and motivations and things like that.

Meryl Streep is so brilliant is because she is so human, and aware as a performer.

Stephen Frears is brilliant and has made movies that inspired me for my whole life.

I am fairly physically aware and agile, and I imbue that into the characters I play.

I grew up around the business quite a bit; I saw a little bit of the underbelly of it.

Getting to know where we come from is a really profound way of getting to look at who we are.

I try to act with my whole body and, for better or worse, this is the face that's attached to it.

What I wanted to do was music, until I was about 16. But it was jazz and rock, never classical music.

I really like 'Project Runway.' I know it's reality, so that might be kind of faux pas for me to say.

There are those moments where you realize that your parents or your heroes are human and are fallible.

Personally, I'm not into 'Star Trek' or physics or comic books, but I know I might be in the minority.

I generally don't feel the need to do more research than is necessary to play the part for me, to inform me.

I actually didn't finish NYU. I would have, but I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door before I graduated.

Working is a bonus; working on something you love is a bonus, and getting to do it for a long time is the ultimate.

Everyone feels at times like they're missing a page or two out of the handbook that tells you how to live your life.

Things are loud in a Jewish household. Conversations are up here; they're pitched pretty high. That's just the way we talk.

I'm deeply insecure. I ask my wife all the time, 'Was that OK? Are people lying?' I'm not as happily oblivious as I'd like.

I don't believe I'll be in the new 'Arrested Development' unless they ask me, in which case, okay! That's how easy I am to get.

My parents tried to convince me that school won't always be there, but auditions will. I said, 'Really? Are they tearing down NYU?'

It's hard to convince your agents and managers to do theater, because it's not as financially rewarding and it takes up a lot of time.

Being an accompanist is very selfless in many ways because you're really just trying to elevate the singer and help them shine, ultimately.

I have great instincts, like the instincts of a squirrel. You know, like when you're driving and a squirrel stops in the middle of the road.

I'd say I'm really, really good for a 16-year-old, which is where I peaked. I'm impressive, but not classically trained, not a concert pianist.

I love Jerry Lewis. I loved Jim Carrey when I was younger, and Mike Myers and Phil Hartman, all the 'Saturday Night Live' people in the late '80s.

I came in ["MADtv"] kind of late in the season. Some of the producers didn't want me but the network did. It was all (messed up) from the beginning.

I've learned over time that human beings tend to want to do more than they have the courage to do or that the social contract will allow them to do.

I don't think Hollywood respects multi-camera television. Well, I don't think they disrespect it, but I don't think it gets respect for its artistry.

It's not really about confidence. It's just something that isn't really in the vocabulary of what goes on at work. The writers write and the actors act.

Karate probably gave me an incredibly deep awareness of all the parts of me, my flexibility, and the nimble qualities I'm doing, even if they're unconscious.

Every time we do anything artistic, the way it's perceived is always going to be different from the way that we had intended it to be because it's subjective.

To me the ambiguity is, maybe our perception of ourselves is always going to be different than somebody else's perception. There will always be that disparity.

As actors, we tend to usually have some issues with self-esteem and some need for validation, and it takes awhile for that fear of not having a job to go away.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor in high school, I really went into improv. I took classes at The Groundlings. I studied acting. Did sketch comedy in L.A.

It's amazing to watch somebody who is kind of this sleazy, degenerate lothario, sex-crazed guy become sort of a romantic, settled-down man about to have a baby.

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