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" The wonderful drama teacher at my high school, Barbara Patterson, saw me standing in the hall and told me I should audition for 'West Side Story.' I guess she thought I looked like a gang member. "

Gary Sinise

She

School

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" I have a band that I started with a buddy of mine, a Vietnam veteran pal named Kimo Williams from Chicago. "

" I played a character in 'Ransom' who was as evil as they come. "

" Unless you have a long-running series, most actors just go job to job if you're lucky to keep working. You just do a movie or a play or a TV thing, and it's over at some point. "

" My wife's a loving, funny, Irish-spirited person, and I'm still surprised at some of the things she says. She makes me laugh every day. "

" I do spend a lot of weekends on the road. I have to pace myself. It can be pretty busy, but I'm not out in the Afghan desert with 70 pounds on my back, away from my family for a year at a time. I keep a good perspective on it. "

" Well, I've been to Iraq twice now. I was in Baghdad in June and then north of Baghdad in November. "

" I was always fascinated with rock 'n' roll, or girls, or something like that when I was a kid. "

Gary Sinise

Rock

Something

" 'The Stand' came out in May of '94 and was seen by 60 million people a night for four nights, and then two months later, 'Forrest Gump' opened. So within a very short time, I went from being depressed about not getting any work to being in two of the most popular shows of the year. "

" There's always the ongoing actor frustration of finding the great role to do next. I don't go to work a lot. I wait as long as I can until the money runs out or a great part comes along. "

" Before discovering theater, I was sloughing off and didn't have any passion for school. Then I couldn't get enough. All of a sudden, I was getting good parts in all of these plays. I just loved it. I started getting A's in acting, directing and technical theater. I found something that clicked. "

" I started as an actor. I started directing because Steppenwolf needed another strong director. "

" I started a theater called Steppenwolf. We've been very supportive of the veterans there. "

" It's always been my dream to do a dance scene with Anthony Hopkins. "

" My mission is to support our service members. They're volunteers, and if they're going to go to a hostile place like Afghanistan, I think we owe it to them to back them up and try to help them get through it. "

" Being able to act for a living is a blessing. I have a great theater company that's almost 40 years old. "

" I have veterans in my family. But I didn't know anything about DAV, Disabled American Veterans. "

" You learn from things that don't go well, and you try to capitalize when they do. You build on those strengths and try to make your weaknesses stronger. "

Gary Sinise

Try

Build

" The University of Southern California has a wonderful social work department, and I was thrilled to find out that they have a whole veterans' initiative program there. They approached me, and I set up a scholarship that would go to a military-oriented person to learn techniques and skills to better help veterans. "

Gary Sinise

Better

Help

" I study to learn, to be an educated person. "

" Careers, like rockets, don't always take off on time. The trick is to always keep the engine running. "

" I'm thrilled I can make a living doing something I enjoy. "

" I save money when I'm working so that I never have to take a role simply to pay the bills. "

" I can honestly say that I've done everything I've wanted to do, always. Not without difficulty. But every time I wanted to do something, I just did it, from the age of 18 when I started my own theater with my friends. When I decided I wanted to act. I just bit the bullet. "

" The chance to play a romantic character who kisses somebody onscreen was one of the elements that made me want to do 'The Stand.' The more you can do, the better, and I've been known as a character actor. "

Gary Sinise

Romantic

Character

" I'm not registered to any party. I don't really play in the political world. I'm really more interested in getting things done. "

" But I've got more to learn, too. I don't feel like I'm done or I know it all. "

Gary Sinise

Feel

Learn

" I've worked with a lot of really fine actors, both on stage and on screen. The level of their game lifts me up and brings the level of my game up to theirs. Always. It's like a constant upgrade. "

Gary Sinise

Game

" I'm not like one of those actors who's a frustrated director. "

Gary Sinise

Frustrated

Director

" You've got to keep taking certain risks, because my priority is in acting, it's not in movie stardom. "

" I've never had to compromise myself for a job, ever. "