When I went into 'Fiddler,' I wondered about the response I'd get - the backlash because I'm openly gay. There was none. I toured Canada and America, and not one single review suggested that I played the role gay or that I seemed anything but Tevye.

If you deny yourself commitment, what can you do with your life?

But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It's a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.

How often are the perpetrators of hate-crimes discovered to be self-loathing? Valued individuals do not strike out against strangers.

I guess a drag queen's like an oil painting: You gotta stand back from it to get the full effect.

Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.