To this day, I still would choose the angst over something easier, when I really don't have to.

I wanted to - any chance I had to dress up as a boy, like Halloween, I would be a pirate or a ghost that wore a tie. A hobo.

From the start. As early as - I felt I was in the wrong sex; I really did. I would go into my dad's room and put on his clothes.

I've just always loved singing, and I come from a family that loves singing around the kitchen table.

I've always sung. My dad had a song in his heart and on his lips 24/7. A lot of the time, it was the same song and the same phrase over and over again.

I can fool people that I was educated.

I'm like Jay Gatsby. I like to throw the party and then stand back, looking gorgeous. Stand back and watch it.

I think my cruelty hides beneath the surface a lot more than Sue Sylvester's.

I'd drop whatever I was doing to show up to do the graveyard shift of 'America's Shopping Place.'

I get the male thing. I like being that for a woman. But I also like being a woman, too. I like being girly.

I had friendships with two people in my life who, when I attempted to do my habitual behavior of building a case to break up with them, wouldn't allow me to do it. They both said to me, 'I'm not going anywhere.' And that moved me so deeply.

I auditioned for a one-act version of 'The Princess and the Pea' called 'The Ugly Duckling,' and I was cast as the King, starting a pattern of being cast in roles originally intended for men. I went to the first rehearsal, and I didn't get any laughs, and I choked and I quit. I walked away from it and joined the tennis team.

I'm not out to conquer anything, which I think is a good thing. That's why I also think crazy, different things come my way. I really don't have an agenda, and I'm really happy not to have one. I'm just keeping it light.

It's always a good idea to go up for the male roles. You go up against a bunch of beefy guys, and the casting director then feels smart for taking you on, like he's the one who thought outside the box.

I love the character I played in 'Criminal Minds.'

So much of Sue Sylvester, the angry woman, came from that part of my life, wanting to crush other people's dreams and judging others so harshly, which is always just a way of deflecting your own self-judgment.

I never went through a biological clock experience. I never even heard it ticking.

I don't wear particular designers. I wear whoever fits me well.

I have acting technique; I have singing technique; I don't have a writing technique to fall back on.

Making people laugh is a really fabulous thing because it means you're getting deep inside somebody, into their psyche, and their ability to look at themselves.

When I was younger, I actually wanted to be in the spotlight. To have people want me, want to have a piece of me.

I was a huge 'Friends' fan. I had a very small part. I played a real-estate agent in the very last season.

My first love, in my head, believe it or not, was Ron Howard.

I was not the kid that hung out at the arcade.

I do like to go to movies. I like to be in the theater. I like the event of it.

I like for Sue Sylvester to be firing on all cylinders.

I think humor is such a personal thing, and you put a microphone in somebody's face, they're going to say something that offends somebody.

I grew up in a Southside suburb of Chicago. It was idyllic. But I was plunked into a family that was not artistic and didn't know how to deal with my emotions.

I could be pretty volatile, especially when I didn't feel understood, which was 99 percent of the time. I do think that, as a young person, I suffered over that. But as I look back, it doesn't even feel like part of me - except when I act and need those emotions. Then I can dredge it up.

There I was as a kid: a closeted homosexual who wants to be an actress. I had no choice! Wanting to act was something I was wired with when I was born. I never thought I would have success or celebrity, although I did want that. But what I wanted more than anything was to work.

When you get out of school, you just go where the wind blows: Here's an audition; there's an audition. And before you know it, you're where you're supposed to be. And that was Second City.

I've had days here and there where I would get discouraged because I wasn't a big star, but I've made a living ever since I was 27. Not a great living, but enough for me. I think actually being able to pay my rent and eat and perform is enough, and I did that for many years. Then I had some good years in there, too, where I made pretty good money.

There's nothing better than voicing a character. You don't have to worry about what you're wearing; you've got the script in front of you, and it doesn't involve your body: it's all about your voice, and it's really fast work.

That weird dark energy - when I was a kid, I didn't know what it was. I just had to 'thrash it out,' as my mother called it. I became quite intolerable, creatively and artistically, with other people. I wanted nothing more than to be part of a group, and yet I couldn't help alienating people.

There's this weird kind of coming-in-from-left-field thing going on, and I love it - I am a huge fan of Christopher Durang.

I think that network TV is going to either have to reinvent itself or it's going to have to be more competitive - there are just so many options now with streaming and everything.

It's so amazing that you can give somebody like David Fincher 'House of Cards,' and he can do whatever he wants - Netflix doesn't say, 'Oh, you can't do that,' or, 'We need a subplot here about this.' It's pretty neat that it is allowing the creatives to be creative.

When I was a young person, when I was in high school, we did a very emotional and wonderful - for us, life-changing - production of 'Godspell.' It really, really was the highlight of my high school time, and it was for everybody else in the cast, too.

I don't really sit there and think, 'What would I like my life to be?'

The funniest people are usually the best actors, I believe.

I love being the villain.

I've never been a cheerleader. It's so outside of my range of things I could ever do.

I worried too much when I was a kid.

It's really fun to come to the same place to work every day.

The world, universe, God, whatever you call it, has so much more in store if you just sit back and relax and do what's right in front of you.

Once you start classifying and trying to identify your own comedy style, you've ceased to be funny.

The more I become comfortable in my own skin, I think the funnier I become.

I've actually never done standup before.

I'm an actor more than anything else.

A lot of the songs in 'See Jane Sing!' are pulled straight from the kitchen table and my parents harmonizing together.