JOHN SLATTERY

Let's face it, making movies is all risk. Most of the time, batting average-wise, the reward does not outweigh the risk.

When I first started, I was kind of surprised that anyone would ever hire me at all. So I took everything that I was offered.

You put a movie star or a bunch of movie stars in a movie, it doesn't mean people are gonna go see it. It's been proven time and time again.

But the path you end up on means that you have to close a lot of doors, too.

For some reason surfing... I'm not scared of the ocean so the risk doesn't seem as great to me.

The rule of surfing is never tell anyone where you go.

Characters can become boring. That's what's tricky about television. It goes on and on - you're playing this same character for five seasons and it gets easy to fall into just walking on the set and assuming you know how to play a scene.

I was a horrible limo driver: I ran out of gas with passengers in the back and I used to get lost on a regular basis.

Memories are just stories we tell ourselves about our past; and that's often why they don't match when we've shared the same experiences with someone.

I like to try the scene over and over, but given the confines of television, I don't have that option.

I've never directed anything before 'Mad Men,' so I don't feel I have any advice for the other directors.

And I don't want to jump out of an airplane - I've done that.

I don't have to worry about how my movies sell because I'm not the guy in front.

I guess, you make a big studio film, you spend a lot of money on it and you hope people go see it. It's really risky.

I've dyed my hair a million times and it looks terrible, always. It just looks fake. And it doesn't make me look that much younger.

I think I gravitate towards people who express themselves in a simple and funny way.

When I was growing up, the top movies dealt with grown-up, complex emotions.

My wife tells me I need to learn to be more patient with my son.

I think the moments that are difficult for anybody are when you see what your life could be, if only you had the courage to take the steps needed.

Viewers can hate a character and at the same time can't take their eyes off of him.

I've done a lot of pilots. A lot of shows. You're young and you do a job just because you know someone gave you a job.

As an actor, you see a sliver of how the show is made, but to see the actual writing process and the re-writing process and the casting process and art direction and set design - all of this is happening in a very intense period.

When I was coming up, everybody wanted to be Tom Hanks. There was always Robert De Niro and Al Pacino - they were the heavily dramatic stuff. I always had a foot in both camps. The hardest thing was to resist the advice to be like someone else. It took me a while to figure that out.

On 'Mad Men,' I have a bit of an advantage because I know who gets better as they repeat a scene and who's best at the beginning.

You learn pretty quickly: if you fall in love with your edit, you're bound to be heartbroken because it will all be re-cut.