The level of comfort that people feel with me has taken some getting used to.
On stage, everyone stays put; the vantage point is always the vantage point, and you have to play to the size of the house. And of course, on film, there's different angles, different shots, so that determines how animated or how still you must be.
When I need to exorcise a demon, I grab whatever score is going to house the song I need to sing out of my system, and I sing it.
I'm not one of those people to outgrow my initial blessings.
I've always been weird.
I could not leave Georgia fast enough.
'Penny Dreadful' is so realistic. The tonality is so earthy and so real that I actually believe it is in the realm of possibility for all these extra species to exist among us.
The issue with race particularly within this country is largely because of lack of dialogue.
I never had any trouble being myself. Myself was a problem for a lot of people, but I didn't have a problem.
The older I get, the easier it is to be all of me.
I know that I need my coffee in the morning, and I don't want to talk to anybody at the start of my day!
Life moves so fast, my friend. I am just lucky and happy to have the people I care about there along with me, watching all of this occur.
Personally, I'm very private, so when my door is closed, it means I'm unavailable, and when it's open, it doesn't mean you can come in.
People have to work to maintain happiness. It's easy to be miserable. It's easy to stay miserable. It's easy to live in a place where nothing's working and not being able to work your way out of it. It's much harder to choose happiness, to choose laughter, to choose a positive.
When I cook at home, most of the people I cook for want to be in the kitchen while I'm cooking. I love nothing more than someone monitoring how much salt I put into something, how much pepper I add - but nothing that you can offer is going to sway how I decide to deliver information to you; you'll either receive it or you won't.
Sondheim is New York.
I hover closer to earth than I do the clouds.
I don't like flashy things.
I think Donald Trump has put America in great danger, and I think he's done a disservice to us even if he doesn't win. I think his effect is going to be kind of lasting.
Singing is how I express everything. Hunger, needing new clothes... it's all through song.
Titus belongs to 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,' Titus Andromedon. Tituss Burgess couldn't be more different. I get how people think I'm one and the same, but I just don't live there. I'm nothing like that man, and whatever I would do wouldn't be in stark contrast just because, but because I'm in stark contrast, it would be different.
Ellie Kemper I just adore. She is such a warm, generous actor, and we have this wonderful rapport off camera, and that's very important.
I had this one audition - I won't say the casting director's name, but she was on the phone the whole time I sang. I was literally doing my audition, and she was on the phone. So I guess whatever it is she was ordering for lunch was more important than the high C's I was belting out.
I get to play some zany, multilayered, very complex individuals.
I'm obsessed with the 'Real Housewives ATL,' sorry about it. It's one of my favorite shows of all time.
The people I've met have been inherently delicious and warm and appreciative. It makes those 14-hour-days so worth it.
The critics are not writers - they're not a part of the creative process; therefore, they should not influence how I go about doing my next bit of work.
You put it out there, you go film it, you go write it, you go record it... but the fans are the ones who decide it.
To somehow shrink so that you might be more comfortable is a foreign language to me. It's a trait that I've never had. And that I hope I never, ever have.
I've always given attention to detail. I've always given my heart and soul into a lyric, into a line.
I prayed fervently for a series regular job on a show that had the perceived caliber of talent that '30 Rock' had.
I'm a walking contradiction on so many levels. I'm gay, black, and a Christian.
I will work for Tina Fey forever.
I do not like attention. Oddly enough, I do everything I can to avoid it.
I'm a person who does not like to journal; I don't like to sit down and write... I don't even like sending emails.
Miserable people tend to act out.
For me, having walked through Times Square so many times as a broke and starving artist, as a TV star, and now having other hopes and dreams, it just represents possibility and the moment of full circle.
The first role that I got on Broadway was supposedly for a white man. But I had some producers who fought for me and allowed me to come in.
I never had trouble within the audition room. That is a room that I control. So while I certainly experienced versions of what Titus Andromedon was going through, I never experienced the self-doubt.
One thing about my dinner parties - they're never planned. I go to the grocery store, and I buy whatever is on sale. I get a lot of it, and I just send out a mass text: 'I just bought food. Dinner's at 8. Text me if you're coming.'
I fell asleep during 'The Dark Knight Rises.' I fell asleep during 'The Hunger Games,' all of them. I cannot stay awake. As soon as a movie starts, I'm asleep!
I feel most at home when I'm alone. That's not sad. It's just I feel closest to source and connection when I'm by myself.
I know that I need a lot of sleep, and while I'm filming, I probably won't get it.
We were always in church, and always singing, so once I realized that music was something that I had a knack for, I sort of latched onto it, and it helped give me an identity and figure out who I was as a person. It informed my way into theater, which informed my way into television.
So much of what I do is inspired by and for the LGBTQ community and for everyone but, just, being a theater kid and wanting to do stuff that represents us in a positive light.
I'm writing a musical. I am. I was able to buy the rights to 'The Preacher's Wife,' which starred Whitney Houston... I'm writing a whole new score and all the lyrics for it.
I can call up a friend and have them meet me for a drink in 20 minutes, and suddenly, the night unfolds into this glorious, uniquely New York situation. I wouldn't give it up for the world.
I'm black. I'm gay. I'm culturally Christian. I am a walking target on so many levels, and it is horrifying and a cross that very, very many of us who look like me have to bear.
I don't want to sound pretentious or meta or anything, but I don't write until it comes to me... People know when something is inspired and when something is not, and I don't want to waste anyone's time.
