I was as happy doing theater in New York for little or no money as I am now doing television for more money. The happiness, I guess, comes out of it being a good job....

You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there’s only so deep you can dig in that week.

Don’t you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It’s like you ordered wrong.

In those 15 years [since 1990], we’ve discovered 95 percent of what we know about Alzheimer’s. We can diagnose it with a high degree of accuracy. We can diagnose it in younger people, … The...

Nothing ever guarantees you anything-that’s my rule. My other rule is never believe anything that anyone tells you, and then you’ll never be fooled. It’s not as cynical as it sounds; it’s just that people...

Last year, I finally got my own grand piano, and that was a big thing for me because it’s always been and always will be a very important part of my life.

There have been many exciting new discoveries in Alzheimer research at NIH-funded facilities. But this progress cannot continue unless there is a strong and sustained flow of resources for research. I urge Congress to boost...

We all went to Kelsey’s wedding, and yeah, we go to parties. We also go to each other’s house. A group of us got together over at Kelsey’s and just read through some plays just...

So much of life is paradox. So much of life is neither one thing nor the other… it’s both things at the same time.

I consciously or subconsciously draw on whatever attributes are most appropriate to the character and just heighten them.

People can be a hoot on the set, but if they’re not good to work with, that tires very quickly.

The curse of being on Frasier is the challenge of finding writing that’s that good in any other medium. I’ve been looking at scripts for two years.

I had done voiceover for a Simpson’s episode, and I also did some for the HBO show Puss N Boots that was set in Hawaii.

Sometimes in the most tragic situation, something just profoundly funny happens.

I was chased through a chateau in the Loire Valley by a bunch of American school girls.

Kelsey plays the piano, and he’s also a tremendous singer. I’m classically trained, and he’s more of a jazz improvisatory pianist. So, we don’t usually sit down and play together.

From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between… and...

There’s nothing worse than putting two similar shows back-to-back. Viewers don’t want to watch one show and then sit through another half-hour of almost the same thing.

In sitcom school they tell you how great it is to have a long-running show, but they don’t tell you how hard it is to say goodbye.

We could have a serious epidemic on our hands. Alzheimer’s is a ticking time bomb in the heads of people in my generation. We must defuse it before it detonates and destroys our minds. Time...

August was horse-racing time. The only time we’d ever go to the track is sometimes in the morning, when the horses would be working out.

I had always acted for fun, and I wanted to do that. I really didn’t have the talent. I loved to play, but that’s a whole different level.

By the time the disease was through with him, he no longer knew how to move a chess piece or to put together a simple child’s model boat,

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, I’m finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You’re not downing a glass of wine...

Let’s see… how old am I? I’m definitely in my 50s… and I’ve certainly always been in my 50s. I could be older than that… but I’m not willing to face that.

We can’t control what the ratings will be. It’s like, if you’re going to go skiing, do you hope you’ll have a good day of skiing? Yes. Do you hope you won’t break your leg?...

There’s a very strange transference that happens in playing brothers. We just respond to each other in a very deep way.

I do know that if you’re able to laugh in a situation, it means you have perspective on the situation… that you’re not swallowed up by it. On some level, you can keep your head...

I was waiting in line to go into the cafeteria, and I told a joke to someone and realized that it was funnier if I didn’t laugh when I told the joke. I actually had...

The first year I was on the show, it took an interviewer about 45 minutes to get it out of me that I even had a dog, and even then I wouldn’t tell him the...

I am, by nature, a fairly shy person, and one of the things I had to learn was, when you’re on a popular show and people feel they know you, what used to pass for...

I don’t remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in...

I would always fall down the big main staircase in our house. My favorite thing in the world was to pretend to be horribly killed at the top of it, and to fall dramatically down...

I probably was as bad as a security guard as I was as a tie salesman.

I did a big movie this summer, during my hiatus. That’s really the time when I can do anything where I have a large part. That was Down With Love, an homage to the Rock...

I think opera is probably the exact same thing as boxing-a bunch of big, strangely dressed people making strange noises for a really long time.

I don’t have the time to tell you all the things I’ve learned from this cast. It’s an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well.

My dad had been an actor… not only had my dad been an actor, but his dad had been an actor, and my great-grandfather had been an actor. And who knows before then?

I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I’d end...

It’s very humbling. As you’re sitting there, watching, and the character does some wonderful thing, you think, ‘Oh that was good.’ But it wasn’t me. It was them. They did that. It is definitely being...

So much of good comedy is timing and being able to hear the music of a line and the rhythm of a joke. I think that’s why a lot of the best comedians have some...

On some level in acting, what you’re trying to find is truth, because when it’s true is when it’s also funny.

Kelsey Grammer is wickedly funny. He’s like an 8-year-old child. He’s always doing pranks, and we have a great time.

The greatest honor the Academy has ever given me,

I was closing up my parents’ house this summer, and found a film of my dad throwing a football with me in the front yard. It was like Niles as an 8-year-old-every time he threw...

Both my parents had a strong influence on my sense of humor and my ending up in this profession. They both had terrific and very different senses of humor. Mom had a very dry, deadpan...

I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible… but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see...

Now people just congratulate me on my marriage, it’s wonderful,