Beverley Leslie was closeted. I'm not closeted. He was a little homophobic. He's a social climber. I'm nothing like that. He had a mean streak. I don't think I'm mean at all.

I have a standup I do in gay bars, and it's filthy. I have to assess the crowd. If it's an all-gay crowd, I'll dip into the stories of my sordid past.

I do so many cruises out of Miami, all the RSVP ones. And I'm on the cruises out of Fort Lauderdale all the time. I'm always doing cruise after cruise out of there.

I've always sang a little like a 16-year-old girl, but even Ann-Margret stopped after a while and brought it down a bit.

I'm one of the most popular cabaret performers, and I don't sing a note. And nobody expects me to sing.

My success on the road is predicated on my success in Hollywood.

I wasn't what you would envision for the son of an Army man. I liked doll baby clothes and twirled a baton. But my aunts and uncles tell me how much he loved me.

One of the main reasons I started writing these one-man shows was that this really evil casting director once said to me, 'you're peripheral and you'll always be peripheral. You'll come in with the zingers and have very little to do, so just accept that and take the money.'

What's been interesting is that the more famous the person is, the less they seem to care if I talk about them.

I love, love, love South Florida.

I feel as if I've been to Miami a million times because I do so many cruises out of Miami.

I had an awful experience where I went to the U.K. and did reality. I can't even get into it - it was called 'Celebrity Big Brother U.K.'

I really was in jail with Robert Downey Jr.

I don't sing. I don't dance.

I've done every series that had gone down the toilet.

I'm Southern, I'm gay, I'm little - I get Ma'am'd a lot on the phone.

The fact that I had a gay agent was good because he could say: 'Honey, you've got an audition today. Keep your feet on the ground, O.K.?'

None of us wants to be judged by our worst act on our worst day, and we consistently judge Burr for that. He was not a perfect man, but he's not a villain. He's a dude, just a guy.

My dad was always in sales. My mom had a heart for the ages. Worked in recreation, doing rehabilitation in nursing homes. Very nice, practical folks who were very proud of me but had no inclination toward the stage in any way.

Josh Gad was in my class. Katy Mixon. Griffin Matthews. Josh Groban - he ended up leaving to become a huge star, but he was in our class in freshman year. I remember Josh was this nerdy kid in a turtleneck with a voice from heaven.

I've been fortunate in my life. It hasn't been easy, but there has been a focus on the positive, and it has reverberated. Eventually, the outlook mirrors itself back to you in the friends you have, in the partner that you choose.

It is said an artist spends their whole life trying to get to the place where their heart was first opened up. 'Rent' was that place for me.

I'm the nap champion.

I'm glad things worked out the way they worked out.

You need to put your head down and... try not to lose hope.

I remember when I was in 'Rent,' Daphne Rubin-Vega threw a party. At the time, she had a loft in TriBeCa, and the elevator opened right into her apartment. I was like, 'I've never seen anything like that.' I didn't know it was possible.

For most of your career, what you're trying to do is to step into other people's shoes.

People are coming to you at their most vulnerable; they're showing you the parts of themselves that they're afraid to show: the parts that they're not so sure about, not so secure in. And so it's a really holy profession I think, teaching. If you do it right, it can change somebody's life.

Sometimes I think of creativity or art as this well that we all draw from.

Donny Hathaway's 'For All We Know' is the song that I've sung the longest. It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and appreciating this very second. That is the song I did for my 'Rent' audition.

Making $1,260 a week at 17 years old? That was a million dollars a week to me!

You gotta prove yourself. I'm not above that. I will never be above that. Bring it!

We're reminded yet again: we are stronger, we are smarter, we have more fun when we include each other - when we include as many perspectives as possible.

You must be an artist and a citizen of the world. You must speak to this stuff that's happening. You must do what you can to shine a light on it, help people through it.

I don't want to leave anything offstage.

There are certainly people who have committed horrific, evil acts in the history of humanity. I don't think Aaron Burr's one of them.

None of us get to divorce ourselves from the world. We walk into the theater and bring all of our grief and our pain and our joy with us.

I haven't gotten hundreds of jobs that I've auditioned for.

I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence - and all my friends were more talented than I was.

I know what not being able to pay your bills feels like real well... I know that way better than a room full of beautiful people and Tony awards and Grammy awards.

There's this Frank Wildhorn tune 'Sarah' - it's not a widely known tune, but it's my favorite song to sing.

I grew up in the Canaan Baptist Church.

I studied at Carnegie Mellon. I went there with a bunch of really, really talented kids.

'Rent' opened up my heart, my senses. I was never the same. I hadn't been back in that place in the same way since. 'Hamilton' put me back in that place.

When we go and cheer Cynthia Erivo on in 'The Color Purple,' it's because we've elected her to be our voice. She sings 'I'm Here' for all of us.

I'm an artist, and I like art that gets people talking, good or bad. Criticism is good, too.

The only reason to keep talking about history is if you are juxtaposing it with the world that we live in today, if you are learning something about our world by looking at the way they shaped their world.

I think it was, my parents got me a karaoke machine when I was about 9 years old. Even before that, they got me a tape recorder that I used to walk around my life with. And there was something about recording and then hearing myself back.

I've been involved with 'Hamilton' for about two and a half years. I've learned so much. I came into it a young man. Now I've dropped the 'young.'

When I see the black experience - there's not one, but it is specific, and you can't ignore it.