I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.
The army taught me to sign my name very quickly, and that's stood me in good stead the rest of my life.
There probably wasn't a day that went by in high school that I wasn't bullied either physically or verbally. It made me stronger, and I knew I had to stay steadfast to what I believed in.
My writing practice taught me the important thing is steadfastness. It's not necessarily discipline. Discipline can become a prison. When your spiritual practices become another thing for you to be anxious about, they've lost their usefulness.
The idea of having proper qualifications had been very much ingrained in me. My father had a steady job for the Potato Marketing Board, and the family emphasis was on getting to university.
I love the feeling of having as close to a steady job as you can ever have as an actor. I'm not an extravagant spender, so when I work on a TV show for a season or do a bunch of episodes as a reoccurring, I try to spread the money that comes from that out so that I can do these movies that are important to me.
Graduating business school, I had $150,000 of debt. An investment firm offered me a steady job, but it didn't feel right. It was 2007 in Silicon Valley, and I dreamed of starting an Internet company.
I've known what it's like to survive without a steady job. Growing up in the Philippines, I watched my parents juggle part-time jobs at the corner shop and as tailors, barely able to make ends meet for my three brothers and me.
I didn't go out for a soap until I moved to New York. I wasn't even considering soaps, but my agents talked me into it and said it's nice, steady work.
I was really, really stagnating and getting bored in the steady work of television and didn't really know what movies I would be making that Hollywood would be making, and then I went on to 'Game of Thrones,' and it was just like, everything I've been waiting to do was handed to me by really nice people.
Emotionality is really easy for me. My father always said that Fondas can cry at a good steak.
If you happen to tell me where you were born, your date of birth and that kind of information, then I'm 98 percent of the way to stealing your identity.
My mom bought me this amazing baby-food maker, the Beaba. I steam and puree fruits and vegetables, and they last for, like, four days.
One of the things that would steer me away from a franchise is that I'm playing the same character all the time and I wouldn't want to be known for that.
When I was a kid, there were some people around me who were a bad influence. When I met my girlfriend Sofia, who is now my wife, I think it all changed. She was very important for me, because she steered me back on to the path I wanted to be on.
As a child I always steered clear of science fiction, but in the autumn of 1977, the bow-wave of publicity for the first 'Star Wars' movie had already reached me, so I was eager for anything science-fictional.
I don't recall my parents ever steering me toward or away from science. It was more that I was steered toward learning and excellence in the classroom.
For me, the director is the most important thing. He is steering the boat. If you don't trust him, you won't be able to give him your all.
My parents brought us up in a very clever way, which was that they saw what we were interested in naturally, and then they encouraged whatever that may be. When I started sharing a keen interest in drama and the theater, instead of steering me away from it, they encouraged me to see plays and think about drama school.
It's hard for me to speak of my own development. I'm the one behind the steering wheel, and it is easier to see where the vehicle is going when you are looking at it. For me, it feels like I have been doing the same thing all along.
