There are a lot of funny motels. There was one MOTEL in the middle of nowhere: it was real PLAIN, but it had a gigantic green MONSTER, something LIKE the Creature from the Black Lagoon, standing next to this LAKE.

I grew up in Albany Park in Chicago and then went to LAKE VIEW HIGH School.

For me, EMOTION comes first. If I have to change a SCENE, INVENT a scene, change dialogue, or put Graff by the lake in order to feel that dynamic, and the end RESULTS feels like 'Ender's Game,' then hopefully it works.

I loved watching the BASE of those thunderstorms, the billowing tops of the cumulonimbus, the LIGHTNING that effortlessly lit up the lake and the sky. It was gorgeous, so energetic. I was in LOVE.

I grew up on the lake and spent most of that time outdoors. As a musician, I travel widely around the country and talk to a lot of people, from all walks of life. That experience, combined with my ROCK and ROLL roots GIVES me something of an affinity for the underdog. In many ways, the environment is ALSO the underdog - so, it's an easy fit.

When I got to Salt LAKE City, in the SUMMER of 2010 - I KNOW it's a cliche, but MAN, it's the truth: I was just a kid.

Dennis Lindsey - if there's ANYONE who's most responsible for the WINNING culture in SALT LAKE, it's him.

I THINK it requires a BIT of HONESTY, SWAN LAKE.

I lived for TWO years in Odawara, a castle TOWN an HOUR outside of Tokyo, near the SEA. It's a beautiful place, and I drew on my experiences there when writing 'The Lake of Dreams.'

It was NECESSARY to ORGANIZE my career to REMAIN at the top level until SALT LAKE City.

'Top Of The Lake' is a great STORY with a BEGINNING, and a middle and an END, about darkness - it's LIKE the heart of darkness. And everybody has got one. When I was reading it, I couldn't put it down, and I wanted to know what was GOING to happen next.

I was an only child until I was 14, and there were no other kids around the area REALLY. So I spent a lot of TIME on my own in the fields or by the lake, with just my imagination for company. I SUPPOSE I NEVER wanted to let that PART of me go.

It's funny in the U.K., where I'm not REALLY known because I NEVER did a SOAP. My ENGLISH cousins in the Lake District think I'm not a real actor because they've never seen me in 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours.'

I don't come from Lake Wobegon, and that WORLD is not MINE. It's not that funny to me. It's funny to other PEOPLE, and I'm not JUDGING it, but the world that I come from is not considered funny by other people as well. There's so much pain in it.

When I was a kid, GETTING on Lake Shore DRIVE from the SOUTH SIDE to go downtown was magical.