You know, you learned that very young in American culture that the feminine boys don't do well. And yet, I had a dad who was a lieutenant colonel in the army. My dad was a man's man, but he still adored me. And somehow in the midst of that, I still grew up hating the sissy in me.

I always call my journey into sobriety, my journey into queerdom, because I really did hate everything about myself.

Nobody really knows if there's a God - not Oprah, not Joel Osteen, not the Pope. Nobody has touched or felt or conversed with God. They say they have, but let's get real. I think that is what keeps me from coming out as an atheist. I think to myself, even the atheists don't know that there isn't a God. Nobody knows anything.

I figured out quick I had to write my own ticket. I realized I could tell stories and make money from it.

One job I did turn down was 'How I Met Your Mother.' My character was 'creepy gay guy.' That was the character. The script said, 'Creepy gay guy gets in elevator every day with Jason Segel character and he's just being creepy.'

I can tell when I meet you, within three minutes, how you were raised. When I met Lady Gaga on the 'American Horror' set... beautifully brought up.

In a perfect world we'd want gay people to play gay people, but I think that's a good rule of thumb: Whoever gives the best audition should get the part. My problem is getting anybody to hire me for anything other than queens.

In the 1980s we had the huge catastrophe of AIDS and you would walk down the street and see someone who was dying. It was horrendous.

I will never be a Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep, the kind of actor that disappears into a role.

I'm an aging show pony and they trot me out here and there.

My mother had found this album of all these old slides from the '50s of me as a kid and I said, 'We should have these made into pictures because the color's so beautiful.' There were pictures of me from 1955 as a little baby wearing all these elaborate outfits, and in these pictures was this amazing story of a gay man and his mother.

I don't know what the other celebrity's lives are like but I lead a true celebrity life. I get pampered. I'm always alone.

What amazes me with 'Will & Grace' fans is how young they are and how straight they are. The guys always come up and go, 'You are so funny on that show. My girlfriend watches that show.'

My sister was cute, she said, 'Oh my gosh, you're an overnight success.' 'Oh,' I said, 'this is the longest night.' I've been at it since 1982.

There are many paths to God. What really bothers me - and what I think is the height of arrogance and stupidity - is when one group believes their way is the only way. That really gets my dander up.

There are two or three ways to combat homophobia - one is through humor. The second is to put a face on it.

There isn't a lot I can do on this planet, but I can be funny.

I love my family dearly.

You almost had to have grown up in the church like I did to realize how dark that is, how dark it is to be a kid and be told that God hates you or that there's something wrong with you.

I don't go out at night.

It's so nice that today, young gay men have a choice about who they want to hang out with.

I knew I was as gay as a goose. Then I ended up in West Hollywood, where the queers hang from the trees. I was home. I had landed.

I'm truly 95 percent a hermit.

I'm a worker bee.