I`m no longer going to play thugs or debauched cops that I can`t possibly make complex characters. I`m bigger than that. I owe too much to too many good people at the Goodman, Arena and Playwrights Horizons.

That`s when Burke started to come out, not merely as an attending surgeon who`s dating an intern but as a fully dimensional guy. We discovered that he`s someone who cooks, he`s someone who has compassion.

You don`t have the time to make the time" to do anything. You have to do it now!"

Even if I`m playing a bad guy, I work hard to make him multi-leveled and interesting.

Race will fall away if you show the humanity of people.

[On being fired from Grey`s Anatomy]: I apologized and showed my remorse for what I said and for the pain I caused anyone. If a black man can`t get forgiveness in this country, when so many other people like Robert Downey, Jr. and the governor of California get second and third chances... I think that says a lot about race and this country where we stand.

That kind of person can be done without a chip on his shoulder. I didn`t want to be on a successful show and just put in a box.