Michael Emerson

I'm truly glad there are so many options on television that are for grown and thinking people.

— Michael Emerson

It was an all-white church. It was starting to decline. They had to hire a new pastor, and they hired him. But…

— Michael Emerson

I like the things every actor likes - I like great, intense duet scenes with good actors.

— Michael Emerson

So we didn't get the denominations and the separate congregations really till about into Civil War time. What's happened then, of course,…

— Michael Emerson

I really do think that every time you play a role well, you are in danger of being identified with that role…

— Michael Emerson

Scripture is vast, and people can pick and choose what they emphasize, and so for hundreds of years verses that said that…

— Michael Emerson

Life will be simpler when I don't spend two-thirds of the year in the middle of the Pacific.

— Michael Emerson

'Elementary' is a strong show; we watch it almost religiously in our house.

— Michael Emerson

It's the sad fact of how race still works in our country. We find that over and over again.

— Michael Emerson

One of the things we find when we talk to people that attend these congregations, they all have social cost to it.…

— Michael Emerson

There's always that sense of because we're so racially defined, if you're trying to cross the boundaries you don't fit into any…

— Michael Emerson

So the tradition from Europe is that you're supposed to emphasize the mind over the body, so you sing from a very…

— Michael Emerson

I have had some good fortune in the world of television. I have had it late in life after many youthful struggles…

— Michael Emerson

What happens is sometimes these congregations will still have the white style of worship, even though they're mixed, because folks are willing…

— Michael Emerson

As an actor, I'm not sure what I had to offer the world of tragedy and comedy when I was 21. I…

— Michael Emerson

It's one of the things we find in these congregations is that they are much more likely to be sort of up-beat…

— Michael Emerson

My mother always told me growing up I had a punchable face. Little did I know she was predicting my television career.

— Michael Emerson

I've been blessed by doing classic plays on Broadway, which was one of my great dreams forever.

— Michael Emerson

I used to make training films for the U.S. government. I was always cast as a madman or a prisoner. I once…

— Michael Emerson

I see it happen in uniracial congregations all the time. But people - when they're in mixed company, we speak differently.

— Michael Emerson

And sometimes the clergy are blindsided by that. Other times they realize that ahead of time and say they're not going to…

— Michael Emerson

Every pastor I talk to says, and particularly if they're African American they'll say, "I'm not black enough for African Americans. I'm…

— Michael Emerson

I'm very proud of my New York debut. I played Oscar Wilde in 'Gross Indecency' off Broadway in about 1997. And I…

— Michael Emerson

We're going to see more, and we are seeing more, and I'll tell you exactly why. Not because white and black are…

— Michael Emerson

In your actor's heart, you know when you're playing well. Others may not always agree with you, but I'm always aware of…

— Michael Emerson