David Harbour

“I got the 'Stranger Things' script, like, a week before NBC canceled 'State of Affairs.' I really had this moment where I'm like, 'I'm done.' My neuroses is very sophisticated: I was like, 'I am done. Hollywood is done with David Harbour. They are finished.'”

“The perils of success at a young age is being afraid to make a mistake.”

“One of the things I've been interested in my whole career is exploring masculinity and what it means to be a man. The sensitivity of a man, but also the violence and power that goes along with it.”

“I'm around 6'4' and 240 pounds. So I rarely feel that intimidated by other men. But I've got to give it up to Terry Bradshaw. That guy is a complete bulldog.”

“I think one of the worst notes I think I've ever received was Ang Lee on 'Brokeback Mountain.' He came in on coverage, and he was like, 'More, more handsome.' I was like, 'I'll try that.'”

“Always, with speeches, I feel like it's an opportunity to say something.”

“I feel, in storytelling, people are so afraid that you won't get it unless you pound them over the head.”

“I love to watch human beings figuring out their limitations.”

“I can like Jack Nicolson's Joker, and I can like Heath Ledger's Joker. There's other Jokers I don't have to like.”

“I'm very interested in the drama of the leading man being someone who is incapable, becoming capable.”

“I think that's what 'Stranger Things' does, it opens you up - it has a real beating heart to it.”

“All I've ever wanted to do as an actor was move people.”

“Life really is too short.”

“I think that storytelling, at its essence, allows us to feel like we all suffer the same insanity or a similar insanity of existence: that nobody escapes scot-free. We're all going to wind up - at the best-case scenario - 80, 85, 90, broken, in pain, and feeling like it was all a dream and not really understanding the point of any of it.”

“At the end of the day, what I try to bring to villainous characters is a sense of humanity.”

“Untangling Christmas lights is the true tragedy of 'Stranger Things.'”

“I'm just trying to give the best human expression that I can to any particular genre, which could be comedy, could be drama, could be horror, could be thriller.”

“At the end of the day, my biggest fear in life is that I'm gonna wind up being an actor who plays the dad on a TV show like 'Full House' or 'Small Wonder' or something - I'm, like, the desexualized dad in the show 'Alf.'”

“I'm a man. I'm not gonna wear dad jeans or whatever you call them.”

“My natural state is a state of an explorer - a performer, but someone who wants to explore their experience and reflect on their experience more than just lie on the beach. Even when I go on vacations, I get stressed out if I'm at the beach for, like, two days. I'm like, 'Can't we do something? I can't just sit there.'”