I think Madonna is a wonderful performer.

The word diva to me means doing something supernatural with something natural.

A show is exhausting when it stinks. It's exhausting when you have to work overtime to make something work.

I learned a long time ago from David Mamet to wipe your feet at the door, get it out on stage and then go about your life.

I played the tuba in high school. I wanted to be a member of the marching band. I thought, what can I play that has the most effect? What can I play to get people to laugh?

I think Madonna is a wonderful performer.

We're not show-business people. We have a life.

A well-rounded performer will listen to all kinds of music. I like classical, Middle Eastern, and rock a lot.

I just love chickens.

To be nominated was enough, but when I won I the Tony I just felt relief.

Smile at a stranger. See what happens.

I just create, that's what I do.

I'm totally Italian, but I'm not a diva. If you could see the way I'm dressed in daily life, that's not a diva. Appearances are so not important to me.

The theater is a tough place. It's not cushioned the way it is in film and television.

Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we're all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.

All my career, I've said this: Critics and producers think audiences want actors that only present the silhouette and hit the points in the silhouette. What I do is too dangerous.

I am in musical theatre, but it isn't necessarily what I listen to in my leisure time, do you know what I mean?

I don't listen to the contemporary pop artists. They all sound alike, anyway.

I knew when I was a kid that I had a Broadway voice. I wanted to be a rocker, because I grew up in that era of transistor radios at the beach.

I know what it means to have a leading part, and I know what it means to have a featured part.

I love what I do, and I love the audience, and I love the fact that I get to do it, and I love, I love our craft very, very, much, and it's a noble craft. We have a responsibility to it, and to the audience, and to the playwright, and to the message. I won't ever care less.

I think that Stevie Nicks is one of the greats. Steve Nicks and Grace Slick and Janis Joplin have the real rock voices, to me.

I'd love to do situation comedy - it's the best job in show business.

I'll tell you what I think in general about people who want to make their Broadway debut that are not trained stage actors. Don't they know, Broadway ain't for sissies? It is a tough gig. You are responsible, physically, mentally, emotionally, for eight shows a week, at the top of your game. It's not easy.

In America, it stands out, because it's raw, it's big, it's emotional. My face is raw, big and emotional. It didn't work for the longest time.

My favorite band was The Band, and nobody compares in my mind with The Band.

The only thing we are as actors are messengers. That's all we are. Correct? We are delivering the playwright's intention through the concept of the director. And I come on stage; if I feel confident in the role, then I give it away.

It's exhausting when you have to work overtime to make something work.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

I personally believe that I was... a previous life or something... a previous reincarnation, a bard of some sort, because most of the things I write about are descriptions of places I've never been to.

It's important to dress our children well. I have some wonderful memories from my childhood, and so much is associated with what I was wearing. If you look good, you feel good - simple.

Whether you're in a blockbuster or an art film, you have to be able to adapt.

Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity.

I liked Jim Carrey from the very beginning.

A trouble shared is a trouble halved

Human rights are the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

A man is like a cat; chase him and he will run - sit still and ignore him and he'll come purring at your feet.

Being a mum has made me a lot more responsible, it's not just me anymore. But it's also brought me the most joy ever!

It is fun to explore these kick-butt characters.

In college, I was told the market can't be beat.

Belief is so important in everything. You need to believe in magic. You need to believe in yourself. You need to believe in your family.

Anytime you have a fellow artist say, 'Loving the new Luke Bryan album,' that's awesome.

I don’t think it’s real unless you put it on an LP. CDs aren’t real. Anybody can do that.

Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.

Not being able to read and write music is not the same as being illiterate in speech and writing.

I'll do anything to get the laugh. I love it.

In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view and to be conceptual with a picture. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.

So long as these kinds of inequalities persist, all of us who are given expensive educations have to live with the knowledge that our victories are contaminated because the game has been rigged to our advantage.

Spoken word teaches that if you have the ability to express yourself and the courage to present those stories and opinions, you could be rewarded with a room full of your peers or your community who will listen.