Billy Porter
Billy Porter

For me, life is about being positive and hopeful, choosing to be joyful, choosing to be encouraging, choosing to be empowering.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

For years I tried to put myself in a box, and it frustrated me, so I had to let go and let the universe take its course.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

All you need to do is turn on the news, and in five minutes, you're depressed with the state of the world. Choosing joy is a completely active choice. It doesn't just happen. You can't just say, 'I want to be happy.' You have to take action.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

You can't ever put yourself in a position where someone is requiring you to inhabit somebody else's energy. You have to own your thing, or own it with very fiber of your being.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

Just by the nature of making the choice to be true to who I am, I'm political. Sometimes that's all you need to do: Show up and be black, gay and Christian in America and actually say it out loud. And refuse to let anything or anybody take that away from you.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

We need to understand that whatever we do, we're all human beings first.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I was so beat down as a young person - being black, being gay, being unable to assimilate because I could never, ever pull off being butch.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

When you're doing what you love, it's not exhausting at all, actually. It's completely empowering and exhilarating.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I wouldn't be caught dead in red.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I do 'sissy with a heart of gold' really well.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I'm in love with what a high heel does to a leg: how it makes a woman or a man feel. It's empowering.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

If you gauge how you're doing on whether somebody is responding vocally or not, you're up a creek. You can't do that; you kind of have to be inside of your work and play the scene. And tell the story every day. Tell the story. Tell the story. Regardless of how people are responding, I'm going to tell the story.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I love the community of theater. There is something about the camaraderie: People who show up eight times a week to do a show. It's unlike any other business. It's just lovely. You feel like you're in a family.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I've worked with a lot of gay and lesbian organizations. I sit on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda. I've also done a lot of work for Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS. I think it's important because, when we can be of service to others, it only enhances our lives. I've been helped a lot in my life.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I had to come out to my mother three times over a twelve-year period, but I first came out to her when I was sixteen. It didn't go over so well, because I grew up in the Pentecostal Church. It was a very strict environment. She has since done a lot of work and has really blown my mind. She has learned about my life and has changed her mind.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I'm not one of those actors who gets so taken by a role that I can't live my life. I'm the type of actor who goes to work, transforms into a character, takes you on a journey, and then comes back home to be Billy. When I'm in it, I'm in it, but I know how to get out of it. When you can't shut it off, you're a crazy person. I'm not crazy.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

Just because you're working does not mean you're making money. That's two very different things in show business.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I took 'Grease' to play my trump card, my voice, and get attention that would lead to auditions for serious work like 'Angels in America.' But I backed myself into a corner with 'Grease,' and it took me 17 years to get out.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I was fine being in the closet at the beginning of my career because that's what you were supposed to be - until I realized that it didn't serve anybody, and I was left feeling utterly empty. This is who I am, so I've gotta be me.

Billy Porter
Billy Porter

I grew up when one of America's greatest black playwrights, August Wilson, was writing about life in Pittsburgh, but I never saw myself in any of his straight-male plays. And then I see 'Angels,' which was so honest and painful, and it had this black drag queen in it, Belize, with a big heart. I finally had a character to relate to.