Jim Parsons

I've been a working actor for many years, but it's not always been successful for me. I certainly struggled in the past.

I try to master every facet of a character in order to build a safety net for myself, so I can go on to take more risks to create someone really distinct.

If I ever wrote a script myself, it would be strongly emotional material.

Every time I think about writing, comedy doesn't interest me in the slightest. I can play comedy, but I don't think in terms of comic dialogue.

I was a very shy child. I remember being in a kindergarten open house with my mother and children saying 'Hi' to me, and I still remember feeling this way - but I don't know why - but I wouldn't even say 'Hi' back. I was that shy.

I came from a family in Texas who simply never spoke about money.

I'm only human, and therefore, there's a part of me that's waiting for people to say, 'Enough of you!'

When suddenly everybody is guessing, or some even getting close, to the ballpark of what you're earning - well, that's interesting, that everyone knows what you make.

The theater I got to do informs every move I make as an actor and will for the rest of my life. I can't shake it if I wanted to, but I don't want to.

You just have to speak up. You just have to say, 'I would like to do this,' and it's amazing what people who listen can do for you.

I couldn't tell you a good, bad or ugly pilot just from reading it, but I can tell you a character I want to play.

One of the things I'm always reminded of when I'm back on stage is how much you have to be aware of and in control of. There is no tight shot. There is no 'we're only shoulders-up this time.' No, from the top of your head to your pinky toe, you're telegraphing part of the story the entire time you're up there.

My choices in projects have all been character or role-based, and on a financial level, it's obvious: as an actor on a TV series, I get a wonderful paycheck, and a consistent paycheck, which doesn't always happen when you're doing theater or movies.

Once, I lived in an apartment with a skylight in the bathroom. Every winter, it would snow through the skyline, but we got a discount because of it.

I've done so much theater, and yet I never had an experience like 'The Normal Heart.' We could feel the reaction of the audience every night. It was visceral.

All I can do is keep working, keep auditioning, keep talking to people - and whatever it takes to show other colors.

My favorite sci-fi movie of all time is 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'

My hiatus timeline is so minimal, there's only a select number of projects that I can go in for.

Being in TV, we get to do it again and again until it's 'right.' There's a part of me that likes the other way, that aspect of theatre where there's no chance to go back.

The TV schedule is essentially four or five days to get in touch with the story you're doing that week.

The whole time I've been an actor, from early in Houston, my goal has been to work - to keep doing it. I feel at my most satisfied as a human being when I'm working on a role.

I have never been an activist for anything.

It's made it easier to communicate important issues, but I wonder if connecting with millions of people online is ever as arresting to someone's attention as one man standing and screaming in front of City Hall.

Well, I'm a big believer in 'never say never.'

Apparently, all I do is walk my dogs. In L.A., I have more of a yard existence, and so I enjoy walking my two little dogs in New York - one's a Maltese and the other's a Shih Tzu.