Michael Emerson

There's always the question of time. Does time at 10:00 mean 10:00 sharp? Or does it mean give or take a few…

— Michael Emerson

There were times when I thought I had to be completely off-book and ready to give my opening night performance at the…

— Michael Emerson

It's not really an easier racket than acting is. For some reason, I guess it had - the rejection of an illustrator's…

— Michael Emerson

That's a big fear, right, and when I talk with black pastors, the same thing: If we try to have this move…

— Michael Emerson

I liked dark, urban stories like 'Peter Gunn,' which was a detective series on network TV when I was a little boy.…

— Michael Emerson

What's happening is that Asian and Latino and other groups without that history are more likely to end up in either black…

— Michael Emerson

I think it's going to open up a wider place for a discussion about we ought to come together in our churches,…

— Michael Emerson

You find the most in not any particular denomination specifically. It's the style of worship. So if we have what we call…

— Michael Emerson

This is this thing I harp on: Sometimes acting can be a self-defeating psychological enterprise if we feel like we're desperate, if…

— Michael Emerson

We studied a mosque, and this is when we were at Notre Dame, and in this mosque they had people from a…

— Michael Emerson

They could never go back to being a uniracial congregation again. It brings excitement. It brings life. It allows them to be…

— Michael Emerson

Maybe there's even anger. But if they make it through that they come to a new agreement, and they start creating a…

— Michael Emerson

Downsides, yeah, and when there are more downsides when churches first start - they go through stages of transforming to becoming multiracial.…

— Michael Emerson

And again, this connection that you get: I meet Joe at church. Joe's connected to a whole network of people I don't…

— Michael Emerson

There are three things, and it depends on the group that we're talking about, but there's history, there's culture, and then there's…

— 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

So there was great clashes when, you know, if you believe you shouldn't remove your shoes and someone's taking their shoes off,…

— Michael Emerson

So it may be a language that separates you - again, social networks. But second-generation Asian and Hispanics, second, and third and…

— Michael Emerson

There's a lot of life there, but it's a different sort, because there's a lot less immigrants and a lot more racial,…

— Michael Emerson

So these are the kind of things that now when people are trying to move towards multiracial congregations that they're stressing. They're…

— 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

I certainly think so, and I argue so, and I give talks on that. Are there risks by putting people together? Absolutely.…

— Michael Emerson

I was a magazine illustrator for many years before I became an actor, and I used to think, 'Oh, God, all those…

— Michael Emerson

There's a lot of terminology, like "washes whiter than snow," and these things which when they're said in a uniracial congregation, they…

— Michael Emerson

In a way, 'Lost,' or maybe TV in general, is a kind of a contract between the writers and the viewers. And…

— Michael Emerson

And then they would have the shoe removers on one side, and the non-shoe removers on the other side until they could…

— Michael Emerson

I think with President Obama there's going to be a discussion, because he himself is multiracial, because we have for the first…

— Michael Emerson

If we go into white congregations, non-whites will sometimes say it felt like worship never started. It was sort of dead and…

— Michael Emerson