I don't listen to a lot of new stuff. I just like the old stuff. It's all quite dramatic and atmospheric. You'd have an entire story in song. I never listen to like white music - I couldn't sing you a Zeppelin or Floyd song.

I think the pop chart today is entirely market-driven. And it has nothing to do with public taste. And it has nothing to do with moving music forward. It's simply a market chart.

I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor. I just really really amused myself and my friends with memorizing entire George Carlin or Steve Martin albums.

On radio and television magazines and the movies you can't tell what you're going to get. When you look at the comic page you can usually depend on something acceptable by the entire family.

Not that it entirely matters: There is a perception that all actors make their movies. A lot of people assume you're responsible. George Clooney told me actors get all of the blame and all the credit.

It's like those high-school yearbook photos that everyone would rather not see: Oh my God look at that mullet hair. I have those photos too but for me they're like entire movies. And they show them on cable.

You think that religion is a thing that is there to help you and to see you through life and then you wake up one morning and find the entire Irish situation the civil war that's based on religion.

As far as I'm concerned the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.

I think the worst and most insidious procrastination for me is research. I will be looking for some bit of fact or figure to include in the novel and before I know I've wasted an entire morning delving into that subject matter without a word written.

The thing I love most about going on vacation is that I get to leave behind any kind of schedule. My entire life is scheduled from morning to night and when I'm on vacation there is no schedule.