They were the DARKEST of times, the years following the crash of the STOCK market in 1929. Thousands of PEOPLE across the United States were CAST out of their Jobs, off their farms, out of their homes and apartments, and into the crushing depths of poverty.

I'm not REALLY that COMFORTABLE, to be honest, SINGING about my DARKEST moments.

To see the faces and HEAR the voices of victims of the Holocaust - one of the DARKEST chapters in HISTORY - was an experience I will NEVER FORGET.

I don't see how we can have both the freedoms we had before and the SAFETY net that we all need considering the way the WORLD is TODAY. And that's just because HUMAN BEINGS can't trust each other. We've given in over and over to some of the darkest elements that exist in life itself.

I think my DARKEST days were probably when I was catering. I would go to these parties and PASS out hors d'oeuvres, and it's LIKE you're invisible. I remember one catering CAPTAIN told me that all you are is a tray that comes into their space for a moment and then you leave. It was one of the most depressing things I've ever been told.

I think SHOWS that are completely dramatic are a lie. PEOPLE use HUMOR to cope. That is how we DEAL with THINGS. In the darkest situations, there's humor. And if you don't show that, you're not being true to real life.

The darkest MOMENTS for me weren't necessarily winding up in the hospital or anything LIKE that. It was those quiet moments alone when I just HATED the person I had BECOME.

I don't THINK being a STAR has ever been PART of the plan. But I always want to do really GOOD work, even when I made career moves with PROJECTS that made more sense in sort of a career way than in an artistic way... like I did with 'The Darkest Hour.'

When I FELT I was rejected by my first wife, and she said, 'Some day you will thank me for this,' you know what? I do. And so, sometimes it is DARKEST before the DAWN. You can think it is bleak and you can't see. You NEVER know.

In fact, LOOKING at the darkest SIDES of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a REMARKABLE PLACE.