Quotes from Jason Bateman

I think NBC got a little reluctant to get behind single-camera shows after 'Scrubs' didn't do what they thought it was going to do following 'Friends.'

Ideally, that's what you've got in an acting career is an equal number of dramas and comedies and an equal number of small films and big films.

I like being hired to do more and more stuff. Carry more and more responsibility. It's nice I'm getting that trust.

And I've always loved commercials. I like working out how to organically weave a brand's message into the writing process. It's like an improv show, where comics ask the audience to throw out a word and a skit is built around it.

I'm a pretty normal guy. I'm really good at knowing how a normal guy would react in situations.

Guys like Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Sacha Baron Cohen, they do things you love to watch. I like to do the other half.

I just love doing sitcoms. I'd be in them till I was gray if they'd have me.

Jennifer Aniston and I have always just really gotten along well... I was just fortunate to be a good fit for parts in her films.

By definition, gay is smart. I see plenty of macho heterosexual idiots, but nine times out of 10 you can have a great conversation if you find a gay guy.

I was just a lot smarter about not getting caught. I mean, I never stuck anything in my arm, but I certainly enjoyed my youth.

That straight man character is a short trip between comedy and drama in a project, so I can play the comedic beat on the same page as a dramatic beat. It gives me a lot of freedom as an actor to play scenes in multiple ways because I don't play the clown, nor do I play someone who is particularly maudlin.

I'm looking forward to playing Michael Bluth many, many more times.

If you're stumbling out of a bar, and people tweet about it, well, don't be dumb. If you're going to get falling-down drunk, stay at home - which I did a lot of.

Do you want to continue being great at being in your twenties, or do you want to step up and graduate into adulthood?

It was a blast. I was doing everything that teenagers do and everything people in their twenties do. I was playing as hard as I was working, which was an effort to really balance my life.

It's not about the script: it's about who the director is and who the other people in the cast are. Because you can look at a great script and execute it in a very sophomoric way, and you can look at an OK script, and you can execute it in a very sophisticated way and come out with something really good.

I don't feel sorry for people in the public eye getting eyed by the public.

I wasn't really interested in doing anything except going from pilot season to pilot season and sowing my oats in the months between and telling my agency to stop sending me movie scripts, because they'd pile up in my house and make me feel guilty because I had to read them.

I wanted to marry somebody who wasn't someone I had to be in any particular mood to want to be around - with close friends, you can be with them no matter what mood you're in.

Starting at age 10, my personality and my identity all stemmed from employment. I had a set to be at. I was a certain way with the cameraman, a certain way with the makeup lady - a normal, routine environment.

My father was a freelance writer/director/producer, and my mother was a stewardess for Pan-Am. It was very non-traditional.

I'd much rather have the freedom, and the obligation to use it responsibly, than be put in a box.

I don't want to be obnoxious with my ambition or sound like I expect any sort of entitlement here. Hollywood is not in the business of humoring people.

Obviously, I did a couple of things right on the old casting couch.