Quotes from Peter Scolari

There was a TV special every year called 'Circus of the Stars,' and I did three consecutive ones - one as a juggler, one as a high-wire performer, and one as a high hand balance.

Nothing's hipper than leaving the set of 'Girls' in Brooklyn and having a teamster drop you off at your Broadway show.

I love Columbus Circle. I rebelled against the construction for a while because I go back to the '70s. There was no Time Warner building. Now I've started to really like it.

With 'Girls,' I have been able to plug into almost everything I've felt that's personal and sensitive.

Like any other all-American boy, I wanted to be just thought of as popular, be well-liked, and meet a lot of cute girls.

I probably make more money in a year on 'Newhart' than 70 percent of your working top-name stars. Some weeks I just have six lines, but it doesn't bother me.

When people say, 'I know you. What have I seen you in?' I respond, 'Well, it depends on how old you are.'

If we decline to become set in our ways, that's good. But it doesn't always feel good. It can be very challenging.

One of the major demographic shares of people who watch 'Girls' are men in their fifties. Fathers watch it, maybe trying to figure out how to keep up with their 20-something daughters.

What I love about the way folks have interacted with me over the years is that they just want to make eye contact and for me to say something nice.

In a drama, you don't make a fool of yourself.

We all have an obligation as actors to be true to ourselves and our best instincts, but often there's a higher purpose, which is to serve the text and, in the grander sense, serve the series, even if that means to fall on your sword and take the hit.

The first thing you have to get when you play somebody iconic is you have to get lucky. More than anything else, you have to make a leap of faith and know that somewhere, the net will appear, and you'll find your way.

I understood rage from my dad, who was an exquisite blend of rage and generosity of spirit.

Sometimes, as actors, if we work hard enough and stay at it long enough and are malleable and directable, then good things can come of that.

I understand in the context of acting, it allows me to manifest character, but I am no wiser then the next person that is living up a life, that is acting and reacting to the built-up circumstances around them.

I made the varsity team as a freshman at 15. Then, I tore a tendon and never fully recovered. I was a shortstop, then third baseman, then second baseman.

Emmys are gorgeous and fun, but with or without them, there is beautiful work out there.

I was offered some film roles, and I did not do them. It would have been interesting, but I have no regrets. I am where I am; I accept and embrace the mistakes because they're character-building and they build perspective and talent.

I used to make fun of those actors who talked about the theater as their temple and their place of worship. I'm not to that degree of zealotry or idolatry of theater as this holy place. But it's a place where I get together with people who do what I do, and we understand each other in that respect.

My first wife tried to get back with me a year later, but there was no way. I used to think she was the be-all and end-all, but I got my stinky little pride back.

It's funny, because I was trained as a dramatic actor at New York's Colonnades Theater Lab in the '70s, along with Jeff Goldblum, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. People I worked with there saw a comedian in me. I'm still most at home in comedy.

The reality of getting married, it really changed things into something beautiful. There was transformation.

It's more than sentimental for me to be working in theater in New York; it's very personal. I think it's a spiritual experience for me.