I have a couple of friends who have gone pro in sports, and if you are off by an inch, it's an entire mindgame for the next week. That's how it works: like, your whole world is based around an inch. Being an actor, your whole world turns on an inch, too.

I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of 'Pippin' were few and far between.

I had no interest in sports so I didn't make friends in that traditional way where kids are in public school and they go and they join clubs, and play sports. So I kind of had to find my own way to make friends and get attention and so I just was the class clown.

The two most important things in life are good friends and a strong bullpen.

I used to get quite upset that I'd make friends with a guy or a girl and then within the space of three years we'd move and go and live somewhere else, and you'd have to say goodbye to that person.

Most of my family and friends are very familiar with the human space flight program and with the excitement of becoming an astronaut.

When we're in that kind of childish space, we're more genuine and feel more comfortable with our friends.

I entered the diocesan seminary. I liked the Dominicans, and I had Dominican friends. But then I chose the Society of Jesus, which I knew well because the seminary was entrusted to the Jesuits. Three things in particular struck me about the Society: the missionary spirit, community and discipline.

Friendship! Mysterious cement of the soul, Sweet'ner of life, and solder of society.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

I'm not the athlete I was when I was training for the Olympics in '92 or when I was working out every single day. I have to live in moderation: I work out three or four days a week, and I smile while I'm working out - I really do enjoy it. I work out with my girlfriends and make it a social competition.

In case you haven't heard, my girlfriends and I have declared the summer of 2012 as the best summer ever. The best way to document said 'best summer ever' is with a good ol' disposable camera. Smile, click, move on! Nobody gets pic approval, and there's no time wasted gathering around the camera to analyze a moment that just happened.

Yes sir, I am a tortured man for all seasons, as they say, and I have powerful friends in high places. Birds sing where I walk, and children smile when they see me coming.

For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

My friends have said, 'Wait, you're pretty, and you sing? What do you mean you're interested in science?' I have to just hold my head and go, 'Do you hear yourself?' By no means should you ever limit yourself because of what others think or because of their perceptions of what someone looks like in a certain field.

Like many of my friends in the Pakistani diaspora - and many of my friends in Pakistan itself, for that matter - I have sometimes looked at the country of my birth and wondered whether its future will be one of steady and sad decline.

'EastEnders' has been wonderful to me and it's no secret that it changed my life all of those years ago. I'll be so sad to leave Peggy behind; she's such a wonderful character to play. I have had the pleasure of working with a marvelous cast and crew and have made many lasting good friends.

With my schedule being so crazy, I can't call every day or hang out with my friends like I used to and that's definitely sad.

It's not a struggle, but sometimes when you're gone for a month or two, you start to miss your friends. I love acting so much that it fills that gap of being sad about not being able to see my friends.

I can't really have any friends. It's sad, really. It's lonely. But that's how I am.

When I was leaving I kind of felt a little bit sad, because I made some friends down in skid row.

The sad events that occur in my life are the sad events that happen to everybody, with losing friends and family, but that is a natural occurrence, as natural as being born.

We all remember where we were and we all remember what we were doing. I had a brother in New York, an uncle, lots of friends in New York. It made me angry, it made me sad; what could I do.

As virtuous men pass mildly away, and whisper to their souls to go, whilst some of their sad friends do say, the breath goes now, and some say no.