Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The Fourth of July concert is invigorating in so many ways, in terms of what it feels like to be an American.
When I grew up, we went to Coney Island and Central Park. We'd find our way to the water and watch the fireworks.
I've been in California for about 15 years now. You're always in your car and insulated. I miss New York so much.
I used to wear sneakers with those nice suits because I wanted Victor Sifuentes to have a bounce in the courtroom.
Women think the people that I play are smoldering and dangerous. I look in the mirror, and I go, 'I don't get it.'
I've been lucky because I've had wonderful teachers along the way who have nurtured and pushed me to the next level.
I started out in the theater, and my background is classical. I'd love to be in a film version of a Shakespeare play.
I'm happy that just about on every other show there's a Latino somewhere present, and we're not all the cooks anymore.
I've always strived to keep mixing it up, keep doing different things, and work in all different parts of our business.
Variety is the thing for me to be able to work in theater and be involved in more films and TV movies that say something.
I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.
It's a lot of pressure. Some of the cast wants a StairMaster on the set so you can work out like crazy before your naked scene.
I don't know... I don't think you can trust any of Kurt's characters. That's how Mr. Sutter operates: nothing is what it seems.
There's show business, and the business is sometimes in capital letters. You just have to give it your best shot when up at bat.
I'm socially awkward in life, and that's one of the reasons why I do what I do. I'm more about interpreting other people's words.
As an actor, you think to yourself, 'I want to do good work,' but you also want the work that you do to make an impact in some way.
In my college years, I worked as a union labor organizer. I was just one of the many workers trying to do my part to help the community.
My life hasn't changed that much. Sure, people recognize me, and airports can get tough, but the people who stop me tend to be real nice.
I have no tattoos at all - it was a huge undertaking for me in the '80s to let my parents know I was piercing my ear when I did 'L.A. Law.'
I have carried the burden of being a role model for some time. And that's great. The body of work I've done has afforded me that opportunity.
Growing up in New York, we lived all around the city depending on our economic circumstance. I also lived in Puerto Rico for a number of years.
I almost feel like sometimes when I'm on location, you miss your home and your family and all that stuff, but it keeps you focused on the work.
When you're doing 22 shows on network television, the writers are going on vapors towards the end and, as an actor, you're just trashed by the end.
You gotta find that hook so everybody can grab on to it. So that you're true to the culture but, at the same time, how it relates to the larger tapestry.
That 'who's the sexiest' business is a crock that the media cooked up to sell magazines, so while I say thank you very much, I don't put much stock in it.
I feel a responsibility to try and give back. I see young people out there who are trained, and any way I can help them and give them an opportunity is gratifying.
There's a lot of successful procedural shows that are out there. A lot of them are very successful. I just know there's an audience out there that wants character also.
It's great to be able to play the 'bad guy' role, because you always get a lot to do, but I'm always looking at the why - how does a person get to that particular point.
What we need to focus on is not that we're not nominated, but that we have many more Latinos that are in prominent positions on shows all across the dial than ever before.
I have been in rooms with people arguing over a character that's not really fleshed out: that, just because the surname is Latino, that automatically means you have an accent.
We tend to think of World War II and all the atrocities that happened, and people say, 'Never again.' But these things are still happening. The Amnesty International files are big.
With the advent of cable and such, you guys are calling it the golden age of TV in terms of the writing and stuff. But it's like different branches of a big tree that TV has become.
Doing a truncated series is like doing a long movie, which allows for a certain artistic freedom. After just 12 episodes, you can take a breather and do other things for your career.
Of course you draw from yourself, but the artistic nourishment you want to get is be versatile, do something different, and I think I got a chance to do that in a lot of different ways.
The Latino population has become such a presence. We are part of the American tapestry in a very profound way, in every area you can think of, and are very significant in popular culture.
I wasn't a great student, but I was interested in this theater thing, and I could spend hours in the library researching why the cuffs in the 18th century had four buttons. It was my handle.
Latino people have come up to me and said they were motivated to become a lawyer because they saw me play one on TV - and you can't discount how great it is when they tell me I was the first.
You can't get so serious as to not realize that what we do is entertainment, but when you have the chance to provoke thought or advance discussion on a topic, it's just the icing on the cake.
You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what's happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.
The great thing about working in cable is that, since the season is truncated - we only do 12 shows - the writers are more at ease in terms of mapping out the trajectory of the story and the characters.
As an actor and as a performer, I've felt that the education system has really helped me in a lot of ways... there was always a teacher or a professor along the way that kept pushing me to the next stage.
Every actor has to deal with what's on his plate, and I try to deal with doing the best work possible with the most challenging scripts. I don't base it on whether it's a feature film or a TV-movie or cable.
I am very Latino in everything I am and I do, but there's a part of me that's also something else. I'm reflective of the way this country's gonna be in the next 40 years. More multicultural is what we'll see.
I left 'L.A. Law' after five years when my contract was up because I felt I had done all I could do with the character. I didn't walk off the show with a three-picture deal to pursue this wonderful film career.
I had opportunities to stay on shows for long periods of time, and maybe financially that would have been good, but I feel good about trying to keep doing things that are a little bit different than what I've done.
When we are out there selling a new picture, when did it become part of the deal that you have to sell the family? To use the juicy part of your life to get attention? I'm not blaming the reporters. It's the system.
For minority actors, developing our own projects has to be the eventual path. We have a lot of stories to tell and a really unique voice. But none of that is going to be heard as long as we're just the hired hands, acting.
Unfortunately, considering that we Latinos are really big for movie companies when they have blockbuster releases or new cable shows, when it comes to the dynamic of supporting our own product, it leaves much to be desired.
People become actors because they want to hide, and it's not easy to talk about myself. I accept that a certain responsibility goes with being an actor in the public eye, but I haven't found a comfortable way to deal with it.
I am a firm believer in education and have worked very hard to tell young Latinos that they must go to college and that, if possible, they should pursue an advanced degree. I am convinced that education is the great equalizer.