Esai Morales

Being an American is a state of mind, and to be in a family is to feel the power of belonging, the power of your roots. Family is a tree, the strength of a tree, the roots, the leaves, the past and the present, the future, the fruits, the seeds.

I love being irreverent. But I hate being irrelevant. I love being irreverent because at the end of the day your actions belie your intentions.

I'll never lose the sense of being an underdog.

I see myself being a father, hopefully a husband, but I'm very gun-shy. The older I get, the further the goalpost.

I am tired of our characters being so incomplete. When do we ever save the day in a film? When does a Latino actor get to be the hero?

Being an actor you have a lot of expenses.

I don't get paid like a person that everyone knows, but I get paid so much more in so many ways.

How often do you get a movie where the coolest character has your own real last name? I played Bob Morales as a cross between my own father - the passion, the fury - and the real Bob Morales. I loved that movie. People, kids always come up to me and tell me how much they still love 'La Bamba.'

It's people politics, people dynamics that make a show really good, whether it's 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Lost' or 'The Sopranos.' It's the people we've grown to love or otherwise.

I love bringing roses to a woman when she least expects it.

I love shocking people.

Anytime you do something Latino, yeah, I love the color, the spice.