Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith. Strangers sit in a room together and believe together.
Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don’t change governments during war.
I really am a theater person. That means you put something out there, and you let it go. Tomorrow night is a new performance.
A musical takes two to five years. You have to love it to put in the years.
Well, I always looked at Mulan as a movie about a lesbian coming out.
It would be nice to redefine ourselves – at the moment we are drowning in diversity. That’s not a bad thing, its just going to take a while before we refocus.
I burned out on AIDS and did no AIDS work for a couple of years. I was so angry that people were still getting this disease that nobody can give you – you have to go out and get it!
When I write stuff and I help cast it, I turn away good people all the time. I may turn them down because this one’s too tall and that one doesn’t have a high enough voice or this one looks to old to match up with that one – there’s a billion reasons not to hire somebody.
In Torch Song, I did that character almost non-stop from 1978 until I made the movie in 1987. Then I had some failure, which also colors how you react to doing other things.
I was exposed to a mix of cultures, lots of different religions and beliefs. I was a spiritual kid and went to Indian powwows and Buddhist temples. But over a period of time, with reading and thinking, I started to feel it was all so absurd: The whole idea of life after death is ridiculous.
I often say that if you want to really want to understand the contract of marriage, just ask anyone who has been divorced. The marriage contract is one of property rights. Or maybe you can look in the Bible to see what Adam had to say about divorce, since Eve was his second wife.
I have to work really hard, eight shows a week, to get a nice check as an actor. But when I write a play, and it’s a – knock wood – hit, the checks come in for many years.
I got the regular call, that they were doing a Broadway musical of Hairspray, and would I come and audition. I was familiar with the movie, because at the time it came out my lover wrote for Premiere magazine, and we had to see everything.
But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It’s a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.
But I’m not adverse to the idea of Torch Song as a musical. It would just be different. Because the play will always be there exactly as it was, and in a musical you could tell a lot of the story through songs.
It’s a wonderful world. You can’t go backwards. You’re always moving forward. It’s the wonderful part about life. And that’s terrific.
I am thinking about how it feels to be a no one in the life of someone you love.
See, an ugly person who goes after a pretty person gets nothing but trouble. But a pretty person who goes after an ugly person gets at least cab-fare.
Just because I said that’s what I want doesn’t mean that’s what I want. I mean, that’s what I want but that doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily ready for it.
Damned Elmer’s Glue! Just let me finish emasculating this eye and I’ll be right with you.
The jockey never recalls using a whip. The horse never forgets.