The artist as citizen is here to stay.

I don't enjoy public performances and being up on a stage. I don't enjoy the glamour. Like tonight, I am up on stage and my feet hurt.

If I hear a record once, I usually never listen to it again. I rarely listen to music - unless it's Billie Holiday.

My mother told me I should be a secretary, but I wanted to be an actress from when I was very young.

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.

I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: 'I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me.'

Eighteenth century American furniture and the design of the architects Greene and Greene are my special love.