Christopher Timothy Quotes

Well, I was coming off of being on 'Law & Order,' and I was a little worried that it might be the end of my career - I've never been one of those actors with a lot of confidence that the next good job will come along.

Every actor fears unemployment - even me.

I think about work all the time. I was in my bathroom yesterday and thought, 'I could never work again.' I don't have a job lined up right now - what if I never get another one?

It always amazed me - it still does - that people offer me work. And when the theater was my basic bread and butter, every time a show finished, I was convinced I would never work again.

I was desperate to do more TV and film. Because I considered myself to be a theater creature. A theater animal. I was convinced that I was going to be onstage for the rest of my life. Because it's something I can really do. I thought I was pretty good at it, and it's kind of stupid, but I was concerned that people would go, "Oh yeah, he's very good onstage, I'm not sure he can do television."

It's a scary life and sometimes you think you'll never work again.

It's always possible as an actress that your last job could really be your last job.

I was happy being a journalist. I didn't realize losing my job, my identity went with it.

I've only really had one period when I lost myself and felt like I was going to lose my career, and that was when I first began presenting 'X-Factor' spin-off 'The Xtra Factor' two years ago. I was worried if I did a rubbish job live on Saturday night TV that my music career was going to get affected and I would lose everything.

The anxiety does crawl up. The other night I was having panic attacks: 'Oh, my God, what's going to happen to me? Am I ever going to have another job?'

I definitely had those moments, like any actor, when you get anxious and think, 'When am I going to work again?' But I would feel that way even when I had every offer in the world coming to me. Then I became a father and I felt a little more of the anxiety that came with the responsibility of being a parent.

Sure, I'd love to be on primetime, but if I'm blessed enough to be picked up by another soap, thank God! It's so hard out there. And when you're not working, you feel horrible. You don't know when you'll get the next job. You don't know how long the soap genre will be around. I want to help keep these shows on the air and keep everybody working!

I did theatre all my life and then went into the film world. I then kind of segued into TV land, which is a different experience.

I never wanted to lose out on an acting job and wonder if I hadn't been trained enough.

When I went to university, I was already working professionally with the Ulster Actors.

When I was focusing on theater, I would go on for months without any work and could hardly pay the rent.

After college, I went to Alley Theatre in Houston to work in their apprentice actor program. I thought I was gonna get discovered. It didn't happen. I moved back to Germantown, Tennessee, outside of Memphis, and taught at my old high school.

I'm very, very fortunate to be in the job that I'm in, and I would love for it to continue forever, but it won't. I have to financially and emotionally prepare for the day that 'Mad Men' will go away, because who knows what my next job is going to be?

Mum did a lot of commercial theatre and farces in the 1980s and '90s to make sure the school bills were paid.

But so much of being an actor isn't so great - the auditioning, the rejection, the financial insecurity.

There was a time, after I earned my graduate degree and before I sold my first novel, when it looked like I might have to get an office job.

Poor Darrell Hammond. What's he going to do when I leave office?

Before 'Homeland,' I had £80 in the bank and no idea what I was going to do. I seriously considered giving it all up and getting a job as a lorry driver.

Juilliard was four years, and I called it 'med school with guaranteed unemployment at the end.' And it ends: you're getting ready to go out and be an actor, and... nothing.

I'm nervous before every day of work, almost. Even after six years of 'Breaking Bad.'