I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here. I just wasn't aware of it yet.

For my confirmation I didn't get a watch and my first pair of long pants like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.

The teacher that I was for decades and that I still am in a certain way wondered what was meant by the word education. I was truly dumbfounded at the very thought of dealing with such an essential and extensive subject.

As a student I learned from wonderful teachers and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.

I didn't want to be the archetypal sponging brother-in-law so I didn't go into acting when I got to the States. I thought 'No I'll go to school and then I'll be an English teacher that'll be fun.' But I was horrible as a teacher. As hard as I tried I just couldn't inspire those kids to take an interest in Milton and Shakespeare and Donne.

My mother wanted to be a teacher when she was young and my father didn't approve of it so she fought very hard to become one. And she did it. So when I said I wanted to become an actress my mother was very supportive. She always said to me 'There's no such thing as 'can't.'

Writing became an obsessive compulsive habit but I had almost no money so I thought about being an urban firefighter and having lots of free time in which to write or becoming an English teacher and thinking about books and writers on a daily basis. That swayed me.

I had this wonderful career and thought I would retire as a teacher.

I was 20 years old working as a roofer and a telemarketer and driving a taxi just barely getting by. A friend of a friend suggested I try acting. I was like 'Why? What am I going to do? Community theater?' But I took a class and the teacher thought that I had potential so I moved to Vancouver and started auditioning.

In my teens I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.