I lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and now my kids are growing up in Los Angeles, so that's culturally very different.

As a kid growing up St. Louis, Missouri, I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. Any time people talked about slavery, it was always something like, 'If I was a slave, I wouldn't have been putting up with that. I would have been out in a heartbeat.' And it's like, sure, it's a very easy thing to say.

Sarah Paulson is the most prepared and professional actor I've had the privilege of working with. I learned so much about preparation and attention to detail and speaking up when something is not right.

I think what Hollywood is learning at large is that there is profitability in stories that are culturally specific and that you can only address the universal through the specific.

It would be great to run around with the family every day, go shopping, take the children out. At my level, though, I can only afford to do that for one week maximum. Otherwise I have to eat, sleep, train - nothing else.

I always thought, 'Will I go into the business, or will I not go into the business?' But when my father got arrested, I really didn't have a choice. I was the oldest son, and it was something that had to be done.

We weren't the kind of family that talked about our problems. We were a close family, in a kind of faraway way. It wasn't a being-with-each-other kind of close. We all went our own ways.

Plays are a pretty big commitment. It takes a minimum of three months out of your life, really. And if you have family or kids, then at least during the rehearsal period for five or six weeks, you kind of say goodbye to everybody.