Top 23 Quotes & Sayings by Jeff Perry

I was one of the artistic directors of the Steppenwolf Theatre, which me and many dear buddies started all the way back in 1974, and I have a lot of that in my makeup.

Most actors will tell you, when they've got emotional stuff that's hard to carry around for hours and hard to try to do justice too, it just beats your butt.

I've been such a fan of American TV.

Television is so neat; I grew up doing theater, and I've done a bit of film. I know I'm stating the obvious, but it's a unique storytelling form in that it's able to constantly evolve.

I've been blessed. Starting with Steppenwolf Theater and onward, learning from wonderful actors and getting to play with wonderful actors.

Actors usually respond to minor aspects of their own character or things that even feel disparate from themselves.

I'm pretty peaceful and calm and sweet.

I get people saying, 'Opera is too large a canvas for me. I don't love it. I love movies that feel almost like documentaries,' in terms of artistic vocabularies of storytelling. I totally get that discussion; that makes sense to me.

We actors are an especially superstitious lot.

I don't have much estimation of my abilities as a director, but I found I loved class and loved process and loved practice. And so I've put together classes of actors - oh my God - since I was 21 years old, I think.

To have a drama teacher as a mentor was just like, 'Oh, what a gift.'

There's something terribly solitary about working in movies and television, and in New York, so much of the theater is showcasing.

I feel gigantic affection for all of Homeland Security at airports.

Everything about camera movement, about how film was made, shot architecture, and time management... I was horrible at all that.

This kind of one-on-one connection of tweeting, I've really grown to get a kick out of.

Gary Sinise and I go the furthest back of the Steppenwolf people; we were both saved from academic mediocrity as sophomores by being cast in 'West Side Story' by this transformationally beautiful teacher named Barbara Patterson.

I went from rotary phone to Twitter. And was appalled at the notion.

Most actors will tell you this - I don't really know how to connect, empathize with, or make worthy of any revelation a character that doesn't have love in there somewhere, that doesn't have an idealism or an empathy in there somewhere.

During 'Anna Christie,' the biggest challenge I had was working with my daughter and sort of not stopping and asking an audience member for a camera to record the moment.

When I was in high school, the drama teacher picked me to play Iago in 'Othello.'

A fuel of discontent and anxiety is probably pretty central to the fuel at 'Scandal!'

I got to meet one Chief of Staff: Sam Skinner. He was Chief of Staff at the end of George Sr.'s White House.

I get cast gay a fair amount throughout my life. It's not the first time. Matt [Letscher] was kind of like, 'Jeff, um, I'm gonna pretend this is real easy and not a problem, but I've never done this at all.' And so you know, we were awkward for a while. And then he said, 'Let's go for it. Come on. I'm gonna pretend you're my girlfriend, my wife. Here we go.' And we had a lot of fun.