You always want to be the person who doesn't need to be included, but it feels damn good to be among you people. My first Broadway show was Master Class, and I saw Audra McDonald. The one that sealed the deal was Ragtime, with Marin Mazzie. My first big role was with John Lithgow, and he taught me the ropes. Norm Lewis sang the night I met my husband. It makes me feel like I have a family.

Our natural thing to do when we break away from our parents and our family is to decide in how many ways they were wrong and bad, and the older you get you start to realize, "By 'bad' I mean 'different'" and then you get a little bit older and you think, "And by 'different' I mean 'pretty awesome but just not like me.'"

One thing I really, truly believe in is having something greater than myself to be grateful to.

I loved to sing and I loved to act, and I didn’t want to continue opera because I wanted to act.

If a man thinks you're beautiful or thinks you're strong or thinks you're smart, take the power and use it, but don't need it.

I try to do different roles and try to immerse myself deeply and see what they need to be that's different than the last one.

I'm grateful that I feel the way that I do - to make choices based on a lot of people's feelings - even though it has been hard at times, especially when I was younger, but I feel like it has led me down the right road for me. I'm very happy with what has come of that.