[on working on the series Justified (2010) ] The writing, the producing, the acting - they knew what the heck they were doin'. I've been in situations where I didn't feel that, from the top down. I've done about five of these TV series, man, and some of them are kinda dumb. I hate to say it. I'm not gonna mention any names. But you can be in a situation where you feel the actors are dumb, and then the producers you feel are dumber than the actors.

Actors are very macho-oriented. In my own case, I don't give a shit. I'd love to play a gay character. I'd love to play a [transgender man]. Nothing would please me more. My heart is like in the yin-yang space, as opposed to walking around set flexing my muscles or whatever.

I respect painting and writing, in many ways, more than I respect acting now that I know how to do it. In the beginning, when I couldn't act my way out of a paper bag, maybe I respected acting more than anything else because I couldn't do it.

Being an artist, particularly being an actor, is a very worthwhile life, but can also be a very hard one, because you can't hide. Specifically, what you can't hide from are your tensions, which are derived from fear. It reads on a screen or on stage if you're tense, and the tension has got to come from some hang-up you have about being there to begin with.

I did things because of the things themselves. And I still do that with my writing, my painting, sometimes with acting still, and I don't care. You're at the mercy of money. You become nothing more than a hunter, in terms of tribal ethic, because we all are members of a tribe, let's face it. You go through your war period in high school when you're a little jock, then you become a provider for your family. Some people are better hunters than other, and bring in more deer. In our culture it's not about deer, it's about money, which is tragic. I think if you lose touch with that stuff, with what you really care about, you're dead in the water.