I had never done anything with blue screen before or prosthetics or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But to be honest I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head.Working with Martin Scorsese was an absolute minute-by-minute education without him ever being grandiose about it.

I feel very lucky because of my parents and then my education the opportunities that I've had so I would like to continue working to improve lives for others.

I adore this adventure I adore working with youth. For me it's a daily challenge working to help these youths realize their dreams.

I think L.A.'s terrific. You fly an hour and a half and you're in the mountains in three feet of powder. I also think it's a much better city if you're working as an actor. If you're not working and you don't see your dreams coming true there can be a lot of heartache.

As far as my dreams go all I want to do is be a working actor and I happily achieved that.

Most of my actor friends don't believe it's possible to let go of it and be happy and for a while that was true for me. For the first two years I ached every day. And I had such bad dreams. But then I made the decision to start working on my little shop and all that went away.

I love working with kids talking with them and listening to them. I always encourage kids to reach beyond their dreams. Don't try to be like me. Be better than me.

Then I was working in a store in Newark New Jersey and I saw an actor in person and I got so excited. My whole day changed. That's when I decided to challenge myself to make my dreams become a reality.

I was working at the store on the Sony studios in Culver City. And I was literally holding a shirt when they came in and told me I'd got the part! It just shows dreams do come true.

'Dreams From My Father' reveals more about Obama than is usually known about political leaders until after they're dead. Perhaps more than it intends it shows his mind working in real time sentence by sentence in what feels like a private audience with the reader.