Quotes from David Schwimmer

I've commissioned an adaptation of 'The Jungle', by Upton Sinclair, a story of a young immigrant from Lithuania to the meat-packing industry of Chicago in 1904, and the rise of the unions in America.

I love directing. It's something I started doing in theatre when I was in university in Chicago and I started a theatre company right out of college and was directing for many years.

To be perfectly honest, I feel I have a duty to use my celebrity status in a positive way.

I came from a family where I felt great pressure to be financially successful, and I felt that staying in Chicago and doing theater, I was, in all likelihood, not going to find financial success.

The biggest effect celebrity had on me was that I stopped being open and receptive and started to walk around with my head down.

I'm very goal oriented.

'Friends', even though it was the longest single job I've had, still to me at the end of the day, when it was over it was a job.

I really believe that, as an actor, you should be constantly studying other people, and celebrity had the absolute opposite effect on me. It made me want to hide - to run away and hide.

Can I tell you how strange it is to look in your rearview mirror and see guys in cars tailing you?

I've always been pretty energetic.

There are days when I think: what if I just checked out? What if I grew a beard and went off to live somewhere remote? I have often wondered about the freedom that would bring.

I never say never, but I'm really enjoying the freedom I'm having right now.