Peter Jacobson quotes:

I couldn't stop to be upset or depressed about anything when I was at Tiger Stadium with Billy Crystal shooting for three weeks. I was going to enjoy every second - even though apparently I didn't.

Bradley Cooper was an asshole, but he was - like Sidney Lumet, like George Clooney - the nicest guy in the world. I sound like the biggest ass-kisser ever. But I'm telling the truth, I swear to God!

I can play a Jewish guy, another Jewish guy, and then another Jewish guy, and then maybe a Cuban guy. Or at least a Middle Eastern guy. But for me, they're all Jews.

I had one really memorable line. It was all the words you're not allowed to say on the airwaves, so it's one long list of swear words. I knew it anyway, because I was a huge George Carlin fan.

I know I'm going to sound like an idiot, because I actually think that everybody's the nicest guy ever, but I'm telling you: George Clooney, Roland Emmerich, Sidney Lumet - these are literally the nicest people.

Anything government or politics is always exciting for me.

Every actor wants to do more, because you always think you can improve it.

Everybody else, they're wonderful, but [Robert] Duvall sets the tone for all of cinema acting. So just to be in his space was amazing.

Hugh Laurie was intimidating, but he's the greatest guy. He's so wonderful and smart and funny and serious, and he sets the bar high. So if I was scared, it's because I wasn't measuring up.

I guess actors don't like to direct each other.

I sat next to Robert Duvall at the lawyers' table for six weeks, and it's still probably the best six weeks of my life.

If it's a good role, I'm happy to play it.

I'm frankly shocked that Hollywood hasn't called me to do a superhero.

I wound up auditioning, wound up getting in, and I was off to the races: I was putting in four more years after school to train to be an actor. I was 26 years old, and I still had a locker, for Christ's sake!

If you do an episode about something like transverse myelitis, it's a real disease that's out there, there are a lot of people that have it, and it's hard to get funding for them because people don't know about it. There are actually a lot of doctors that don't know about it. But if you do an episode of House, all of a sudden 15 million people are hearing the words, and it's an opportunity.

Being able to play a role where you're there almost every day and you're just in it... I remember it was a whirlwind, but it was a lot of fun.

Every actor wants to know in different ways. Some like to know everything. Some don't want to know anything. I think I land somewhere in the middle.

I always enjoy being the obvious homunculus of the pair.

I always loved doing productions in school. In college, I started getting a little more serious.

I don't usually get to play somebody who is, at least, nominally in charge. I'm usually playing somebody's lawyer or a doctor.

I lived in New York, and I was the guy who was flying home almost every week, so there was a physical exhaustion and an emotional exhaustion for me, and a need to be home more.

I love working with Liev [Schreiber]. I've known him for a long time. I just think he is a master. Few actors are so self-possessed and so focused and so confident.

I really had spent my whole life playing soccer, and the fact that I was willing to give that up for theater, that told me I was moving in that direction.

I think I've been able to be in some really good projects with some really good people.

I think the better the show usually it means that you've got a lot of good people, because it's sustaining itself. If there's negative energy, things tend to break down ultimately.

I was a greasy short-order cook. I just liked being greasy! That was a real departure for me.

I was spending three days literally just kibitzing with Jack Nicholson at a table! It was heaven! And talk about a normal guy. My God, he was just so real and cool and relaxed and fun. And he was a great performer. He's such an actor. He really was so focused on every moment. It was great.

I'm a huge, huge sports fan. A massive sports fan.

I'm always an agent or a lawyer or a doctor or a banker. I'm always wearing a tie.

In terms of what's going to actually happen to me in the story, down towards the end of the season, I'm dying to know, but I just don't ask. If it's something that I think will really affect how I play it and it's information I need to know, than I'll ask, for sure.

Intimidation is 99 percent in the intimidatee's head.

It can be easy and comfortable on the set and you don't go anywhere, or it can be a stress machine and all of a sudden it's a hit.

It was fun shooting with Josh [Holloway], not just how great he is, but just how handsome he is.

I've never done real sci-fi. I've never played an alien. I've never played some sort of superhero. Which I'd love to do!

Maybe I'm just lucky I'm not working with any assholes... yet.

My first film role was a reporter. It's funny, because my father was a news reporter. I always thought there was something strange about that.

Of course, on every job there are moments where you're not having fun.

Path To War was the last thing that John Frankenheimer directed, I think, before he died. I'm a huge U.S. history buff, and I studied the Vietnam era in college, so when I read the script, I was, like, "I really want to be in this thing so badly..."

People would stop me in the street - my demographic tends to be the elderly Jewish women from Miami; I think they tend to fancy me as someone that would've been good with their daughter or something - and a lot of them will do the wrist-slapping thing. "Oh, you're a terrible man! Just terrible!" And I'm, like, "Well, it's just a show. I'm just playing a character."

Shia [LaBeouf] was great. He's just high energy. He's into really playing, and I had to be on my toes in a way that I wasn't necessarily expecting.

Some friends of mine in the class ahead of me in college were auditioning for graduate school in New York, and then a few of them got into Juilliard, and it sort of opened my eyes. I didn't really know anything about it, but it opened my eyes to a possible next step after school, where I could just deepen my knowledge and also not be responsible for life and stay in school.

Sports and politics are basically all I really care about or talk about.

Steve Zaillian is just the sweetest. A very, very wonderful and interesting director.

We walked out of this library building downtown, just on our way to lunch, and I was walking a few steps behind Travolta, and when he opened the door, it was as if Jesus had just walked out into the commons.

When you're not gaping at Megan Fox enough to listen to what the director's saying, you can get some work done.

Why things get canceled or not is so unbelievably out of actors' hands that it's one of those things where you've just got to ride with it.

Woody Allen, that was a dream come true, although I never really talked to him. Auditioning was fun, because you don't really hear much about the script. They just said, "They want a Woody Allen type," so of course I got the call.

You never get tired of making money, and you never get tired of a great acting gig, a same role that you can play for years, with wonderful writing and wonderful actors.

When you're on a show for five years, everyone becomes friends. It's great.

I think if I learned anything in graduate school, it was to not drool around other actors who would normally make you drool.

I certainly have played a lot of strong characters, and I love playing a strong character.