One job I did turn down was 'How I Met Your Mother.' My character was 'creepy gay guy.' That was the character. The script said, 'Creepy gay guy gets in elevator every day with Jason Segel character and he's just being creepy.'

I can tell when I meet you, within three minutes, how you were raised. When I met Lady Gaga on the 'American Horror' set... beautifully brought up.

In a perfect world we'd want gay people to play gay people, but I think that's a good rule of thumb: Whoever gives the best audition should get the part. My problem is getting anybody to hire me for anything other than queens.

In the 1980s we had the huge catastrophe of AIDS and you would walk down the street and see someone who was dying. It was horrendous.

I will never be a Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep, the kind of actor that disappears into a role.

I'm an aging show pony and they trot me out here and there.

My mother had found this album of all these old slides from the '50s of me as a kid and I said, 'We should have these made into pictures because the color's so beautiful.' There were pictures of me from 1955 as a little baby wearing all these elaborate outfits, and in these pictures was this amazing story of a gay man and his mother.

I don't know what the other celebrity's lives are like but I lead a true celebrity life. I get pampered. I'm always alone.

What amazes me with 'Will & Grace' fans is how young they are and how straight they are. The guys always come up and go, 'You are so funny on that show. My girlfriend watches that show.'

My sister was cute, she said, 'Oh my gosh, you're an overnight success.' 'Oh,' I said, 'this is the longest night.' I've been at it since 1982.

There are many paths to God. What really bothers me - and what I think is the height of arrogance and stupidity - is when one group believes their way is the only way. That really gets my dander up.

There are two or three ways to combat homophobia - one is through humor. The second is to put a face on it.

There isn't a lot I can do on this planet, but I can be funny.

I love my family dearly.

You almost had to have grown up in the church like I did to realize how dark that is, how dark it is to be a kid and be told that God hates you or that there's something wrong with you.

I don't go out at night.

It's so nice that today, young gay men have a choice about who they want to hang out with.

I knew I was as gay as a goose. Then I ended up in West Hollywood, where the queers hang from the trees. I was home. I had landed.

I'm truly 95 percent a hermit.

I'm a worker bee.

My daddy - whenever he wanted to teach us a lesson, he'd tell us a story. It's an Old South tradition.

I talk about things that happened in my life. Now, do I embellish? Absolutely. Come on, we all do it. It makes for a better story. But it always comes from a germ of truth.

At one time, when I was younger, I exercised regularly and had a 27-inch waist.

I honor the sanctity of all religions - I'm not here to put them down. But the only religion that I personally embrace is the religion of kindness.