'Heel Turn 2' is about a person who's in a match, and he's playing as though the match were real. But it is real! If you're standing in the middle of a ring, and you're playing the villain, and everyone is booing and throwing things at you, that's real.

One of the great things about wrestling is how it interrogates this silly idea that you have one authentic self.

If you're playing a villain, you like to have a rationale. Why is this person behaving in that way? It can't just be 'I'm going to kill them all, I want to take over the world!' Because then your character becomes a functionary, the hero's opposition and nothing else.

I always worry that I'm a dilettante: I know something about lots of things but don't have exhaustive knowledge of much.

One of the greatest things about playing a villain is people wondering when he's going to make his comeback.

I get nostalgic about having lived in Ames, Iowa, even though being a vegetarian in Iowa is not fun. But I really love Durham more than any place I've ever been; some small towns can be really provincial and strangling, but Durham is the best city in the world.