Tony Shalhoub

“I worked in the theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts for years and moved to New York and then to Los Angeles.”

“My dad was a meat peddler who drove a refrigerated truck. He bought his meat in Sheboygan, Wis., and sold it to stores in the region. He was a terrific salesman. People loved and trusted him, and he never let anyone down.”

“It was never really one of my goals to gain tremendous amount of celebrity or make a tremendous amount of money necessarily.”

“People change all the time.”

“I don't look as handsome in Men in Black 2 as I did in the first one.”

“'Quick Change' was my first real movie. It was an interesting audition process because there were no lines in the script. Bill Murray's character would say something, and Geena Davis and Randy Quaid would say something, and then it would just say, 'The cabbie speaks.' How do you audition for that?”

“I am an actor. I try to do different things.”

“I feel like I was born in the wrong time.”

“You're not really necessarily the coolest guy in their life. You are a conduit to the really cool people.”

“I was in my first play when I was 6. My older sister was in a high-school production of 'The King and I.' They needed children for a scene, so she brought me in. I had a costume and a couple of serious lines that got a laugh. I loved the feeling.”

“Before I did any television or film, I did years and years of theater. Television and film stuff, even though it went on for a good, healthy number of years, almost felt like a diversion from theater.”

“My mom was funny and nutty. I suppose she had to be to survive raising 10 kids. To cope and keep a cap on things, she kept us buoyant and harmonious. She wouldn't let us express anger, which later on landed me in therapy but also made it easier for me to play laid-back, measured roles.”

“I've been lucky that even when I was younger, just because of my look or whatever, I was afforded the opportunity or called on to try. 'Can you do this Hispanic character?' 'Can you do this Italian character?' 'Can you do this Jewish-American character?' I just had to develop a facility for their accents.”

“I get the opportunity to play all different ethnicities and not get stereotyped or locked into one. It's been a tremendous advantage, I think.”

“My father came to the U.S. from Lebanon in 1920 when he was 8 without knowing a word of English. He traveled to Green Bay, Wis., married, bought a house, and he and my mom, Helen, raised 10 kids. Everything depended on his one-man business driving a truck.”

“I come from a really big family, my father was a businessman and what he always instilled in us was to be your own boss. My father built up his business, and he was by no means a rich man, but he figured out how to work four-and-a-half days a week.”