Dean Winters

Dean Winters: (on 'Oz')
It's so much fucking fun. I wish we would do more episodes during the season. I've worked on so many bad TV things. I'd go to work and I'd just be like, oh Christ ...

Dean Winters: (on being true to character) I never go into a scene - ever, ever, ever - thinking, I have to make myself more empathetic toward the audience. Once you start doing that, you get into really dangerous territory. I think you start to become kind of untrue to the character.

Dean Winters: (on how he'd personally survive prison)
I probably wouldn't do real well. I have a couple of really good friends who've done time - one of them's in right now -and I think that it takes more than inherent toughness. I think I would have a lot of problems.

Dean Winters: (on his chances of surviving a real life prison like 'Oz')
Zero.

Dean Winters: (on his bartending days with brother Scott) The brother-bartenders were kind of like a gimmick around town. We had a pretty big following back in that day. Whenever we got hired, we'd pack the house with our friends. Business would look great, then the bar owners would catch on that we were giving away the bar, and we'd get fired. This literally happened at seven or eight places.

Dean Winters: (on 'Oz') Most of us walk to work or take a subway to the show. People say, 'How do you prepare for the show?' I say, 'I don't. I just walk to work.' It can be a wear-and-tear show, but in a good way. I get home and I'm physically exhausted. But that's why I do this.

Dean Winters: (on schooling) Mostly, I majored in trying to get the hell out of school. School and I never seemed to walk hand in hand.

Dean Winters: (on moving from New York to The Valley as a teenager) Quite frankly, it was a nightmare. It was a cultural blast coming from cement to the desert. I had a tough time adjusting.

Dean Winters: (on 'Oz')
I guested on 'Homicide', 'NYPD Blue', 'Millennium', and 'New York Undercover', and that was a great training ground, but 'Oz' is my baby. I really get to flex my muscles as an actor

Dean Winters: (on his 'Oz' character Ryan O'Riley)
Ryan really utilizes his street smarts. And now that he's in for life, he's got nothing to lose.