You read each script as you get it and you try not to contradict what you’ve done before and keep the sense of evolution present and interesting, for yourself as well as for the viewer. It’s really important to stay engaged and involved in the character. And when something really extreme happens you have to find a way to embrace that and include it in how you think about the character. Sometimes it’s not easy. - from Clip 1 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED JUN-2005)

I don’t know what the evolution is going to be but I do know that the guy is flawed, human, vulnerable, arrogant, self-absorbed and I think truly believes his message. I think he is a minister for a reason; those reasons can get fuzzy and less than completely noble from time to time. - from Clip 1 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED JUN-2005)

In an answer to How much is you and how much is the writers of the dead zone?: It’s all the writers of the dead zone and it happens to coincide exactly with how I think and feel. ••• And I think the real interest of the piece is sometimes the ambiguity the lack of completely satisfying endings and certainly the lack of predictability. ••• I really do think Purdy is essentially human and when we pretend that we’re in positions that guarantee that we know more than everybody else knows we’re really vulnerable to our own frailties and quirks. They’ll undo us every time. - from Clip 1 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED JUN-2005)

In an answer to Why does Purdy wear a pinky ring?: Pure affectation. ••• I take it as sort of a class ring from some really prestigious religious academy. It also parallels my background in theatre, that many English actors wear a stone ring on one or the other little finger of one hand. ••• I picked up that affectation and applied it to this character. ••• I pretend there’s a cross on it. - from Clip 1 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED JUN-2005)

In an answer to Why the special guest star status?: It has to do with negotiations and to not be a permanent member of the cast. Only because it lets it be known to people who watch who are in the business that I’m not locked to this I can go do other things. ••• - from Clip 1 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED JUN-2005)

There is an attraction for me being a regular in a television series, and that is you get to peel away little onion skin layers of character and keep revealing. ••• In series, you get to do that week after week after week after week and I really love doing that. It’s like a rep company without changing roles. - from Clip 2 at 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS (PUBLISHED 25-JUL-2005)

These are just the Dead Zone and Purdy-related Q&A. For more, go to Bio & Career > Quotes.

Note: these select quotes regarding The Dead Zone and DOS' character, Rev Purdy, are from the my abbreviated transcript of the video clips on the 5 QUESTIONS FOR... DAVID OGDEN STIERS page at usanetwork.com. I tried to type the quotes as accurately as possible from what I heard on the clips but no guarantees that they're100% perfect!. - Clair