When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, the neighborhood girls would sit on the stoop and sing. I was known as the kid who had a good voice and no father.

I just became a singer, because I could never get work as an actress.

A human being is only interesting if he's in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

It’s like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he’s supposed to change for the worse. It’s silly.

It's true that I have a very healthy ego; anybody who creates does.

I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

You know, for me, the realization that two people should have the right to form a sacred union regardless of their gender was strengthened when I saw a performance of the play The Normal Heart in 1985. After feeling the love those two men had for each other, I dare anybody not to want them to get married by the end.