In New York - not to say New York isn't a competitive place - but there's much more of a sense of, we're all here and some of us are up and some of us are down and some of us are in the middle, but we have a longer view of history and how it works, rather than just this week.

And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people its not, but for me its a choice, and you dont get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if its a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesnt matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.

[Nancy Reagan] took that career, that obviously mattered to her, and just tucked it away in a box, because she thought, "That's over with now. I'm going to make wifehood my career."

In a school where everyone is famous or rich or whatever, you have a culture, 'What does your dad do?' 'What does your mom do?

I can't go on anymore bad dates. I would rather be home alone than out with some guy who sells socks on the internet.

Nobody ever really thought of me as sexy, right? They thought of me as smart and quirky.

I understood more what Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan, what they were coming from. Kind of the horrors of their childhoods that they were coming from. When you experience such pain early on, some people really interface with that pain and try and unpack it, and some people just take it and squelch it down and try and be as successful as they can. And, you know, encourage everybody, "Don't dwell on the negative! Come on, buck up!"