My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him, family was everything. We could disagree inside the house, but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor, he looked sideways but said okay.

A musical takes two to five years. You have to love it to put in the years.

I don't believe in the afterlife, so I do think when somebody passes, it's worthy of note.

I got the regular call, that they were doing a Broadway musical of Hairspray, and would I come and audition. I was familiar with the movie, because at the time it came out my lover wrote for Premiere magazine, and we had to see everything.

The great thing about suicide is that it's not one of those things you have to do now or you lose your chance. I mean, you can always do it later.

It's a lot of fun to play someone you don't normally think of yourself as.

In no way be bullied into silence. Hardly ever permit on your own to become made a sufferer. Acknowledge no one's definition of one's lifetime; define oneself