David Hyde Pierce

“Sometimes in the most tragic situation, something just profoundly funny happens.”

“I don't have the time to tell you all the things I've learned from this cast. It's an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well.”

“Maybe it's because I'm getting older, I'm finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You're not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.”

“Don't you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It's like you ordered wrong.”

“Last year, I finally got my own grand piano, and that was a big thing for me because it's always been and always will be a very important part of my life.”

“I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible... but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game.”

“I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I'd end up in some sort of dead end, and not fulfilling whatever potential they thought I had.”

“I don't remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years.”

“There's nothing worse than putting two similar shows back-to-back. Viewers don't want to watch one show and then sit through another half-hour of almost the same thing.”

“On some level in acting, what you're trying to find is truth, because when it's true is when it's also funny.”

“The first year I was on the show, it took an interviewer about 45 minutes to get it out of me that I even had a dog, and even then I wouldn't tell him the dog's name.”

“You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there's only so deep you can dig in that week.”

“We all went to Kelsey's wedding, and yeah, we go to parties. We also go to each other's house. A group of us got together over at Kelsey's and just read through some plays just for the fun of it. That may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but we had a good time.”

“People can be a hoot on the set, but if they're not good to work with, that tires very quickly.”

“Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease.”

“From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between... and sometimes in the same moment.”

“I was as happy doing theater in New York for little or no money as I am now doing television for more money. The happiness, I guess, comes out of it being a good job. The success has to do with the fact that it's a good job that will continue.”

“My dad had been an actor... not only had my dad been an actor, but his dad had been an actor, and my great-grandfather had been an actor. And who knows before then?”

“I was chased through a chateau in the Loire Valley by a bunch of American school girls.”

“We can't control what the ratings will be. It's like, if you're going to go skiing, do you hope you'll have a good day of skiing? Yes. Do you hope you won't break your leg? Yes.”