I am not a sad clown. I am not a sad clown.

I fell in love with the whole ritual. The lights going down, the curtain going up, telling a story to a large group of people in the dark. It was one of those moments where you think, `I can do that.` You`re in control on stage. And I love telling the whole story in one fell swoop. With movies, you never think, `I nailed it.` In theater you get to go back and do it again, which to me is much more satisfying.

It`s a cliche, but there really is no handbook about the celebrity thing; you have to figure it out as you go along.

Sure I think it is healthy to speak the truth, and be who you are, and be proud of that.

All I can do is try to create the best show possible, and I feel we`ve truly done that.

I don`t know what goes on in their heads out in Hollywood.

Look, I`m 40, I`m single, and I work in musical theater - you do the math!

I`m one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades.

I`m still the fat kid from high school who never had a date.

People always think I`m Jewish and changed my last name from Rabinowitz.

You have to be loud...it`s the theater. - asked by a reporter about his "loud" persona on stage.

[On being gay] "From the time I told my mother, I`ve been living openly. But really, I was born in 1956. I`m one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades. My family referred to them as "fags", and that was it."

There doesn`t seem to be a lot of middle ground with me.

There`s not a day in my life I`m not proud of being gay but I just wasn`t ready for that attention to be placed on it. I remember being on Oprah. Well, not on Oprah. Near Oprah. She started saying, `Now, Nathan, you got all those girlie moves going down in The Birdcage, where`s all that coming from? You`re so good at all that girlie stuff!`

People think they know who I am, because I`ve played so many very, very out gay men on stage, and they think that`s me.

On a personal level, I don`t immediately open up to anybody, even about what colours I like, much less something like this. I am my mother, OK?

[Coming "Out" following the death of Matthew Shepard] "It was like somebody slapped me awake. At this point it`s selfish not to do whatever you can....If I do this story and say I`m a gay person, it might make it easier for somebody else."

People have to do things in their own time, and that`s what I did.

I told my mother I was gay, and she s...and she...and then her face went white, and then she said, `I would rather you were dead.` And I said, `I knew you`d understand.` And then once I got her head out of the oven, everything was fine. She came from a generation where, yes, of course, she would have preferred if I was straight and had gotten married, but she, uh, you know, she was very accepting. What she enjoyed most is when I was in a musical. She would always say, um, `I`m not saying this because I`m your mother; I`m saying it because it`s true: you were the best one.` [to James Lipton on "Inside the Actor`s Studio"]

I seem to always inspire a strong reaction one way or the other.

There are some people that the press like to pick on and not just the gay press, but the press in general. And some people, the press just doesn`t care about at all.

I didn`t know Charlie before doing the movie, but I was a huge fan of the British Queer as Folk.

[About working in the Broadway flop "Merlin"] "Doug Henning`s greatest magic trick was making the audience disappear".