Actor

When Mindy Kaling asks, I try my best to say yes.

I accept what people say. I don't have time to dissect it.

I'm not a good improv-er, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.

When you get something off the ground, it's fantastic, and you feel really close to that group of people.

The more roles there are, the more actors there are.

I don't know what the next frontier is, but good comedy should put its toe into taboo waters. You have to transgress a little bit, and that area shifts with culture and with the year.

I think my parents were surprisingly cool with me entering the arts. Although, I think they thought it was going to be a phase, and they didn't expect me to actually stick with it, and rightfully so. They were concerned whether I could afford groceries, being an actor.

It'd be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We're perceived as not mattering much fiscally.

Part of my mission as an actor has been to define what an American is.

There's only so much I can do to effect change - and really, the thing that I can do that's most effective is to work and to do good work. That, I feel, is speaking out in its own way.

I grew up speaking Korean, but my dad spoke English very well. I learned a lot of how to speak English by watching television.

There is a real Harold Lee.

I've never even seen a Cheech and Chong movie.

With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.

I never saw 'Home Alone.'

Good things will come from self-expression.

It just seemed hedonistic when I first started acting. It was a pleasurable thing. But as I look back on it now, I understand that it was a journey of the self for me.

When you're not born in this country, you kind of study how people talk and how they act, and you try and break things down.

That's what it is: a 'Harold & Kumar' movie is a romance between two best friends.

Sometimes I feel indie directors are in the game so they can make a film to get hired to do a big film - that we're all doing this person's reel.