You get all these French directors who have all these pretty, vacuous stars of their movies - from Jean Seberg on - who have become iconic but were never really good actors.
I sometimes buy albums that I don't like now, but that I know I will like. Coming out was the same thing. In high school, I thought, 'I know I'm going to have to deal with this, but I'm not confident enough now.' But when I finally did, my whole life changed.
Nowadays, the term 'selling out' doesn't exist anymore because everyone is trying to make a living.
I actually came out the year that AIDS hit the front pages. So there was this mixed feeling about it - excitement that life's finally begun, but it was completely tied up with mortality and danger and politics.
Queerness isn't just Lady Gaga and overpriced drinks and fauxhawks. It's James Baldwin and Bea Arthur and Gertrude Stein and Gore Vidal.
I was brought up very Catholic, and the character of Tommy Gnosis got his name from there.
As you get older, you treasure the beautiful things of the past but also see things more clearly.
After the first 'Hedwig,' interestingly, I was offered to play Hamlet a couple of times.
Compared to other liberal cities like San Francisco and Amsterdam, New Yorkers are always trying to do something, make art or love or money or whatever, and they have this phobia about standing still.
I went to a very small Catholic school. It wasn't an easy place to be growing up gay.
I think as far as themes, 'Hedwig' is about what music meant to you as a kid and how rock n' roll can save you; that is definitely part of it.
I have a weird propensity to know what's going to happen in the future.
I've seen things change and people forget: the history of Berlin, the history of queer struggle, the history of AIDS, the history of New York changing from an artistic powerhouse to more of a financial one now.
I like the fact that it's like The Ramones. You just have to change your name, and you're a Ramone. You just have to put the wig on, and you're Hedwig. Women have played it. Gay men, straight men, you know.
I remember my girlfriend dropped me for the guy I thought was really cute.
I really want as many people as possible to relate to something, without compromising or dumbing down.
New York is so unique, and you are not always encouraged to consider the people in the city your neighbors because of the fast pace and surface anonymity.
Neil Patrick Harris is a superman of entertainment.
I guess historically, drag queens were imitating movie stars and luminaries. It's kind of nice to have a movie star imitating a drag queen.
I did take comfort in the vespers and compline. I might have become a monk if I hadn't come out.
