Alzheimer's is a devastating disease. It was painful for me and my family to watch my grandfather deteriorate. We must find a cure for this horrible disease.
August was horse-racing time. The only time we'd ever go to the track is sometimes in the morning, when the horses would be working out.
Both my parents had a strong influence on my sense of humor and my ending up in this profession. They both had terrific and very different senses of humor. Mom had a very dry, deadpan sense of humor. My Dad has a very wet, anything-goes kind of humor. He tends toward the wild and crazy.
Don't you always feel bad when they take away one of the spoons? It's like you ordered wrong.
From Kelsey, I have learned among many other things the value of turning on a dime and how you can have an extremely funny and extremely poignant moment with absolutely no separation in between... and sometimes in the same moment.
I consciously or subconsciously draw on whatever attributes are most appropriate to the character and just heighten them.
I don't have the time to tell you all the things I've learned from this cast. It's an extraordinary ensemble because we all support each other so well.
I don't remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years.
I found every single laugh as Laertes that you can find and only realized later that you really shouldn't find any at all.
I had always acted for fun, and I wanted to do that. I really didn't have the talent. I loved to play, but that's a whole different level.
I probably was as bad as a security guard as I was as a tie salesman.
I think opera is probably the exact same thing as boxing-a bunch of big, strangely dressed people making strange noises for a really long time.
I was as happy doing theater in New York for little or no money as I am now doing television for more money. The happiness, I guess, comes out of it being a good job. The success has to do with the fact that it's a good job that will continue.
I was chased through a chateau in the Loire Valley by a bunch of American school girls.
I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I'd end up in some sort of dead end, and not fulfilling whatever potential they thought I had.
I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible... but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game.
I would always fall down the big main staircase in our house. My favorite thing in the world was to pretend to be horribly killed at the top of it, and to fall dramatically down to the bottom of it.
Kelsey Grammer is wickedly funny. He's like an 8-year-old child. He's always doing pranks, and we have a great time.
Kelsey plays the piano, and he's also a tremendous singer. I'm classically trained, and he's more of a jazz improvisatory pianist. So, we don't usually sit down and play together.
Last year, I finally got my own grand piano, and that was a big thing for me because it's always been and always will be a very important part of my life.
Maybe it's because I'm getting older, I'm finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You're not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.
My dad had been an actor... not only had my dad been an actor, but his dad had been an actor, and my great-grandfather had been an actor. And who knows before then?
On some level in acting, what you're trying to find is truth, because when it's true is when it's also funny.
People can be a hoot on the set, but if they're not good to work with, that tires very quickly.
So much of life is paradox. So much of life is neither one thing nor the other... it's both things at the same time.
Sometimes in the most tragic situation, something just profoundly funny happens.
The curse of being on Frasier is the challenge of finding writing that's that good in any other medium. I've been looking at scripts for two years.
The first year I was on the show, it took an interviewer about 45 minutes to get it out of me that I even had a dog, and even then I wouldn't tell him the dog's name.
There will always be a Maris, because she is such a great character. In fact, I think NBC should give her a spinoff show in which she never appears.
There's a very strange transference that happens in playing brothers. We just respond to each other in a very deep way.
There's nothing worse than putting two similar shows back-to-back. Viewers don't want to watch one show and then sit through another half-hour of almost the same thing.
We all went to Kelsey's wedding, and yeah, we go to parties. We also go to each other's house. A group of us got together over at Kelsey's and just read through some plays just for the fun of it. That may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but we had a good time.
We can't control what the ratings will be. It's like, if you're going to go skiing, do you hope you'll have a good day of skiing? Yes. Do you hope you won't break your leg? Yes.
We could have a serious epidemic on our hands. Alzheimer's is a ticking time bomb in the heads of people in my generation. We must defuse it before it detonates and destroys our minds. Time is running out.
You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there's only so deep you can dig in that week.
David is no stranger to music. He's been playing the piano since childhood and used to be a church organist.
One year when David was performing at the international comedy festival "Just for Laughs", he arrived in Montreal for check-in with the festival exhausted and dishevelled. He remarked to one of the festival workers how he was looking forward to resting in his hotel room. The worker replied with empathy, saying how tired they were working overtime with few breaks trying to tie up the lose ends and help the performers before the comedy routines. Moments later, Pierce returned with fresh coffee and pastries for all those working at the Festival's check-in.
David made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in April 2003 in the role of Benedict, in the concert staging of Berlioz's opera Beatrice and Benedict.
David once sold ties at Bloomingdales in New York.
David graduated from Yale University with a double major in English and theatre arts.
In 1977, David received the Yaddo Medal as best dramatic arts student upon graduation from Saratoga Springs High School.
David enjoys kick-boxing as a form of exercise.
David is active in the fight to find a cure for Alzheimer's, which both his father and grandfather suffered from.
David holds the record for most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Series, Comedy or Drama. He received 11 consecutive nominations for his portrayal as Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier, winning 4 times.
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