Peter Jurasik

Peter: There's nothing like having no money and no friends to get you to work.

Peter: As an actor you need to stand in front of a mirror every five years and ask yourself, "Who am I anyway?"

Peter (On the transition from musicals into drama): You know it's funny, because only in an intellectual way was I more satisfied. At that point I only had vague ideas of what a career as an actor really meant, so I thought it was all (a) means to get a better motorcycle and meet girls. … I guess Laurence Olivier or somebody said, "No one should even be acting, or really is acting, before they're 30."

Peter: As a young actor, I thought that I was a great dramatic actor, so I hated the fact that I was walking around in plaid vests and hats singing, "Oh, what a beautiful morning" [laughs]. … I was too young to appreciate the fact that I was making $500 or $600 a week as an actor, and instead of saying gee, that money is piling up, I walked away from that work in New York and went into repertory for a number of years in small theaters.

Peter: I'm very cautious about talking about how actors got where they got, as though there is in fact a plan or a way. There is no plan, there is no way, there's no sure set, there's no handbook, on how to get to be an actor.

Peter: That was my aspiration, so I was there in a seminary with just boys who were studying to be priests. Pretty rigorous schooling; we never got home, we stayed there all year. So when I was 13, I basically left home and never returned and lived at home again. I would come home for a week at Christmas and two weeks in the summer only.