“I first heard about 'Stranger Things' from people dressed as the chara...” — Sean Astin Quote

“I first heard about 'Stranger Things' from people dressed as the characters coming up to me at conventions saying, 'Hey, you have to see this show. It's 'Goonies.'”

“The first stage I preformed on were the stairs to the hallway in the living room. There was a really nice platform, and when people were sitting in the living room, it was kind of an elevated platform and we would put on shows and skits.”

“I'm not smart enough to play 'Dungeons & Dragons.' Maybe if someone were to take me by the hand and slowly and carefully walk me through.”

“I definitely loved going on stage, I loved the nervous feeling and the performance and the doing-ness of it. It always felt kind of natural and inevitable and logical.”

“You can't play a hobbit if you're not prepared to be a part of nerd culture.”

“I remember Michael Jackson once called to see if I was feeling okay because I had gone home sick from the set of 'Goonies'; they'd shut down production for a couple days. I was so excited he called, but he didn't leave his number.”

“I have seen American determination in people like Debbi Sommers. She runs a furniture rental business for conventions in Las Vegas. When 9/11 hit, and again, when the recession tanked the conventions business, she didn't give up, close down, or lay off her people. She taught them not just to rent furniture, but also to manufacture it.”

“I think a lot of kids get scared by 'E.T.' Sometimes when I do the science-fiction conventions, I'll have a 35-year-old guy with tatts and piercings all over, and he comes up and says, 'You know, it scared me so much I still can't watch it.'”

“If you look at what is happening in Republican conventions across the country, they are energized. And the message is really the same - that is, big government is a problem, spending is a problem.”

“I enjoy thinking myself into other times and places. I don't like some of the conventions of the 'historical novel', but I think there's a way of doing it that has a lot of merit.”

“Actually, I've taught creative writing in Turkey, at an English language university, where the students were native Turkish speakers, but they were writing their essays in English, and they were very interesting - even the sense of structure, the conventions of writing, the different styles of writing.”