Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are excellent ways to keep in touch with the audience and maintain your image an actor.

I would say that Cynthia Nixon is somebody I admire, and Toni Collette as well. Those women - their work inspires me, whatever they do.

I've always looked to that play, 'Virginia Woolf,' for a cue - as far as any cue I might need as an actor for inspiration or as a writer.

'Next To Normal' is rock music. It's a rock opera. That, definitely, has a place in popular music.

'Tommy' was my first Broadway show. Long Pause. I don't know how you can surpass the excitement or get more excited or feel more on top of the world than when you are sitting in a room singing The Who, and Pete Townshend is sitting there tapping his foot.

I take a lot of naps.

I play the guitar every day.

I am always talking to students and telling them how you have to practice every day because you can't wait for someone to hire you. You need something you do for yourself, something that feeds your creative life.

There were eleven kids, and we all shared a bathroom. It was enough to drive us all insane.

Chrissie Hynde's from Ohio, and so am I. If there's a Cleveland sound, that's what it is.

When you're 20 and you're in acting school and your teachers tell you that 95 percent of actors are unemployed for twenty years, you think it doesn't apply to you. But it does take twenty years to become real, because that's what you have to do to be an interesting actor.

I just think Brian d'Arcy James is a dream come true. I've known of him ever since I saw him in 'Titanic,' and I fell crazy in love with him at that moment.

I'm kind of a dork at being able to dress myself.

I come from the Midwest, from the suburbs - growing up hanging out at the mall and looking at the corn fields across the street. I kind of was embarrassed by it for a long time. Then I decided, 'Hey, if everyone else can embrace their homeland and where they're from, I can do the same!'

You always kind of feel like you're rolling the dice as an actor.

My Mickey Mouse ears were given to me by a dear friend. They remind me of how I need to be silly.

'Closure' is the word used for a loss that's not acknowledged - and the habit this causes, physically and mentally, for anybody who is participating in that.

Any kind of grieving that is not allowed causes a break. In our culture, grieving in public is not encouraged, but in other cultures, it is done publicly. Some cultures have walls where people can cry. We don't have that. We have theatre where there's always the chance for you to face things within yourself.

I have learned that music comes in all shapes and sizes.

As long as a tune has the power to move me, I'm a lifelong fan.

I have fallen deeply in love with songs - musical theatre songs included - over the years, and this experience has taught me to hear and honor the writer's voice in my soul.

There is genuine healing in a beautifully crafted musical theatre song, like Stephen Sondheim's 'Losing My Mind,' or a pop music gem like Joni Mitchell's 'Help Me.'

The musicals on Broadway have not necessarily been true musical theater. I'm speaking generally, of course: I saw 'Spring Awakening,' and I was completely inspired by that.

I love New York City. I really do. I 'heart' New York.

I've always been inspired by Patti LuPone.

I love having a basement.

I sometimes write songs on the piano, even though I don't actually play the piano. I always hire someone to play for me whenever I decide to sing a song I have written on the piano. My song 'Rosa' is one.

It's hard being a Barbie doll all the time.

For me, in the audition, the song that you choose should make you cry. It doesn't matter why: it could be because you're happy, but it gives you that feeling that you're overflowing.

The audience fills me back up, definitely.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.