My education was doing good plays and also stinkers. When you do a stinker, you learn how to act. I like having to audition. It's nice to do rehearsals. But it's with an audience that you get to love it!

When I was a young boy in San Francisco, I remember being sent home from playing with a friend, and I remember the mother saying, 'Tell Jeffrey to go home.' And I said to the girl, 'Why?' She goes, 'My mother says that you're the people who killed Christ.'

When I was growing up, there was a character on TV; there was a character stereotype: it was personified by Mel on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'

I was a young actor who was bald, but at that time, there was a thing on television that - there was a prototype or a stereotype of a principal who was bald and mean with glasses, or there was... the angry boss who was bald.

I can only speak for me... but in my life, I find that, in sobriety, I feel much more, and I have much more depth. I also feel - not to segue, but as being a parent of five kids, I can bring much more to my acting, and so I'm all about anything that gives you more feeling and more depth.

I think I have femininity, I have masculinity, but I get to use all of Jeffrey, and that's very powerful. And this is what I always thought when I went down in my little basement in San Francisco, where I grew up, and daydreamed about being an actor: It felt like this. This is what it felt like.

I grew up in San Fransisco in a very liberal community. My environment was very, very open and very liberal.

We did a thing that we would call we call 'hirstories.' H - I - R - S - T - O - R - Y. I would enact a young Mort. And that always felt - it was so funny - it felt more difficult than playing Maura.

'Clocked' means someone sees you for being transgender.

I don't take off my nail polish when I go home because I'm too lazy, and they're fine with it. Maybe the checkout at the grocery store's not so great with it, but they're fine with it. The distrust, the phobias, those are learned, those are taught. But the natural grace is to understand and to love.

George Saunders's 'Lincoln in the Bardo' is a hands-down masterpiece - the subject of Abraham Lincoln and the genius of this author is a perfect union.

It was the '50s, and the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System were in fashion. I hung out in the 812 section - American theater and plays. This is where I first read Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and was transfixed. I remember staring into space for what seemed an eternity after reading Linda Loman's final speech.

I've done 'Yo Gabba Gabba!' I've done... oh, it's not called 'Rapunzel' anymore. 'Tangled', that's it. Those are both huge.

To you people out there, you producers and you network owners and you agents and you creative sparks, please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story. Do that.

I almost should have a shirt made: 'Jill Soloway has changed my life...' Not only changed my life with the opportunity to play Maura, but the opportunity and the responsibility of playing Maura.

I had a theater that was right across the street from me, and I would just go there after school and just hang out and watch... and everything seemed calmer there and nicer there and warmer there.

I think Maura'is funnier than I am, wittier than I am, more intelligent than I am, and I think she's just floating me at this point.

Love New York Presbyterian. I will do anything for them.

There are secrets in families. That is the definition of a family.

When I was young kid, I used to watch Jack Benny, and I thought the minimal aspect of what he did was revelatory. I loved Jack Benny.

The day before I work, I don't like to even look at the script and let whatever happens happen on the set. But I do prepare a lot. I'm a big believer in that.

We all know about secrets - to have that pressure of something you can't reveal. That's universal: 'Am I safe? Am I gonna be OK? Will my family still love and respect me?'

The shedding of any clothes, when you're 70 years old, is tricky.

There are times between five and seven when this house is like a bowling alley, but it's reinspired me. My acting has gotten better because of these kids. I feel the same spirit I did when I was doing Off-Broadway.

I went bald when I was 18. My father cried. He cried about many things. But it allowed me to play older men in summer stock.

I wanted to do well for me and for Maura. It is bigger than me. I have a responsibility. It's incumbent upon me to do Maura the best I can.

Some people have a mandate that you can't change.

We are part of the zeitgeist, and we are communicating in a human, real way.

I had a bilateral lisp, and I was overweight. I was the kid who played with the flowers on the ground in the outfield during baseball. I was that kid.

The brilliance of Jill Soloway is that while some people will give you Season Two, plus 10%, she's just kicked it.

People are identifying not only with the trans movement, but also the Pfefferman family. What I am noticing is people are coming up on the street and talking about their life and their family, and they say, 'Your family is just like mine.'

I was bar mitzvahed at Beth Shalom, and I had trouble. I didn't quite get it all.

'Dad, Dad, I'm getting married.' 'Sh-sh, don't say it. Nothing, nothing. Don't do anything.' So he honestly - 'cause he was taught don't celebrate - they'll take it away from you. And his parents were taught that, and his parents and parents' parents. Because if you did celebrate, and you were visible, it could be very, very dangerous.

I was with Robert Preston in 'Sly Fox.'

I get up and cook for my kids, who really like my scrambled eggs. Or we make pancakes and the requisite bacon. The kids either play or watch cartoons, and Daddy gets to read the 'New York Times' and do his puzzle.

The Tambors were conservative Jews, and we attended Temple Beth Shalom at 14th Avenue and Clement Street in San Francisco. We were the only Jewish family for miles. To me, being Jewish meant 'otherness.'

I give a speech at some colleges and corporations called 'Performing Your Life: An Evening with Jeffrey Tambor.' I get asked a lot of questions, and people say, 'Your stories are wonderful. You should write a book.'

'Attaboys' help people. I am huge on attaboy. Confidence is the great ingredient to living and art, with fidelity to self. It's so important to surround yourself with people who give you confidence.

They're my instructors, and every parent will understand that.

I think everyone needs to know that I steal biscotti on Delta Airlines. People need to know that.

You know that thing where you're trying to do the crossword puzzle, and you're trying to fit the word that's in your head in the puzzle, and then you go 'Ugh!' and you walk away, and then it comes to you. I'm interested in that moment. The release of expectation, and the release of pleasing yourself and pleasing anybody. Breaking the mindset.

Families are families are families are families.

That's just me and my own body issues - I think I'm fat and bald and old and ugly.

I would daydream about what it would be like to be an actor. I would even do talk shows where I interviewed myself.

Lying and art are very allied. But after you lie, you get to the truth.

I lost my moorings. But you know the great thing about acting? It's all part of the gig. You get to put it in your work.

I'm interested in people's stories, so I decided to tell part of mine.

I do remember going shopping with my mother; I think the name of the store was Ruth Atkins. I don't know why I can remember that. It's probably because it's not the name.

I'm the voice of a Chipotle Burrito. The world has changed.

I don't mind if someone yells a motto out of their car at me. 'No touching! No touching!' No harm is done.